New UNFI Growth Insights Series | Retail Media Networks

October 31, 2024           5 minute read

This week we are launching UNFI Growth Insights, a series of articles featuring industry trends to assist our diverse retail network and our wide range of suppliers in making business decisions and in seeking solutions to profitably grow their businesses. This series was created to capture current market trends and insights and highlight case studies showcasing real-time examples of retail growth.

This first edition of Growth Insights focuses on retail media networks (RMN) and their ability to drive incremental revenue by leveraging CPG investments in digital advertising. Since its launch, the UNFI Media Network (UMN), powered by Swiftly, has been helping smaller and regional grocers across our network better compete with club and mass retailers by delivering personalized, real-time advertisements to their customers.

With targeted messages provided at the right time, customers are prompted to purchase more. And as retailers’ customer data grows, they can run specifically targeted messaging based on shoppers’ buying habits.

One of UNFI’s customers is Dierbergs, a regional grocery chain with 27 stores in the St. Louis metro area. The family-owned business was in search of a way to distinguish their offerings and grow their business without significantly increasing marketing spend. While the company was doing well as a chain, leaders identified challenges in their marketing approaches. They wanted a way to engage customers digitally by providing personalized offers to better compete against larger grocery chains.

By working with Swiftly, UNFI’s retail media network partner, Dierbergs found a new way to engage with shoppers and has seen significant growth and higher levels of customer engagement.  
 
“The decision to utilize a retail media network gave us access to a pool of money that we never otherwise would have had access to,” said Laura Dierberg, who co-runs the company.

As a business that boasts deep connections with its customers, Dierbergs is now able to reach different groups of shoppers across generations and “meet them where they are” through targeted messages, ads and other content via the retail media network.

In today’s world, digital marketing is all about meeting shoppers’ needs and desires based on what’s known about their purchasing patterns. For years, mass market retailers have used that data to their advantage. With UMN, grocers like Dierbergs now have the very same opportunities to realize new revenue streams and stand out in an increasingly crowded grocery landscape.