Given the grocery industry’s often-thin margins, it’s important for grocery chains to continuously find new revenue streams and increase customer basket sizes. Pricing strategies and merchandising will always matter, but the most profitable modern grocers know how to find additional value beyond traditional supermarket retail models.
To excel in a crowded, ultra-competitive grocery sector, store owners should embrace retail services to enhance and add value to the shopping experience. For example, through sustainable partnerships with companies like ecoATM, grocers can turn their stores from standard supermarkets into multi-purpose destinations where shoppers can knock out several errands in one fell swoop.
ecoATM kiosks provide consumers with a convenient method for recycling and selling used phones and tablets. When grocers host these kiosks, they can drive measurable revenue growth and deepen customer loyalty and satisfaction without burdening store staff.
Retail services are about more than just partnerships, though. Some are simple moves business owners can make on their own to streamline the in-store customer experience and make life a little bit easier for shoppers.
How Retail Services Boost a Grocer’s Bottom Line
Grocery shoppers these days expect a lot: convenience, efficiency, value, and more. It often isn’t enough anymore for supermarkets to simply offer high-quality food at reasonable prices, as today’s shopper wants to cross several tasks off their to-do list in one trip.
Retail services help grocers provide just that, meeting the various demands of the modern consumer while increasing foot traffic and cart sizes. In addition, by teaming with partners like ecoATM, grocery chains can uncover new revenue streams without raising prices on core goods.
Especially given how much competition there is from e-commerce and delivery services in the modern grocery industry, service-driven retail can help brick-and-mortar grocers set themselves apart and maintain a robust customer base.
Which Retail Services Are Most Helpful for Grocery Stores?
ecoATM Kiosks
Our self-service kiosks give shoppers a convenient place to recycle and sell used tablets and smartphones for instant cash. Bringing in new foot traffic and putting cash in their pockets is valuable enough for a grocery retailer, but that’s just the beginning of how ecoATM can help generate revenue.
With our revenue-sharing model, grocery stores earn high-margin rent for kiosk space, and there’s no upfront investment required. When shoppers use the kiosk to sell an old smartphone, they spend 70% of the cash they receive in the same store, translating into meaningful additional income for grocers. ecoATM’s customers are often repeat kiosk visitors, coming back again and again to responsibly recycle used tablets and phones.
Even better is the fact that hosting an ecoATM kiosk requires zero effort or involvement from store staff. Our team handles installation, ongoing maintenance, and customer service. Store employees don’t need to know how the machine works, how to fix it, how to collect the devices inside, etc.
Finally, ecoATM has a strong sustainability profile, with over 57 million devices collected so far. Partnering with us gives your supermarket a well-earned reputation as a sustainability leader in the grocery sector.
In-Store Partnerships
Hosting an ecoATM isn’t the only partnership that can drive additional revenue for a grocery chain. In fact, there are plenty of ways grocers can benefit from hosting complementary services that pair smartly with their traditional food-and-beverage offerings.
For instance, some supermarkets have in-store coffee shops so customers can sip while they browse. Hosting a coffee chain within your grocery footprint can have a huge impact on foot traffic, creating a highly symbiotic partnership.
Similarly, if you don’t have your own cafeteria-style deli counter stocked with hot and cold foods, you can partner with a fast-food brand to offer quick-service dining inside your store. The same goes for pharmacies and “urgent care” clinics, which also pair well with grocery retail.
And, in addition to hosting an ecoATM, you can offer financial service kiosks for bill pay and money transfers, traditional ATMs to dispense cash, Amazon package pickup lockers, and more. This creates a diversified shopping experience that helps customers knock out multiple errands at once, and gives them more reasons to visit your store.
Self-Service Checkouts
The term “retail services” doesn’t just mean adding new service offerings within your store footprint. It can also mean adding efficiency to existing processes to keep shoppers flowing through your supermarket, like adding self-checkout lanes.
While some shoppers will always prefer the old-school traditional checkout lane staffed by a helpful employee, plenty of other shoppers would rather quickly scan their own items without interacting with store staff. Offering a balance of both options gives every customer what they want while streamlining and optimizing the checkout process.
As an added benefit, grocers can use the touchscreens on self-service checkouts as a high-visibility, zero-cost advertising solution when they’re not actively in use. Speaking of…
Digital Signage
When placed strategically throughout the store, digital displays can influence shoppers’ decisions in real time. And you might already have some of them in your store, waiting to be used: idle self-service checkout displays, the upper monitor on an ecoATM kiosk, etc.
You can update digital signs instantly, giving you a golden opportunity to react to inventory levels, seasonal trends, supplier promotions, and more. Leveraging digital signs in the deli department can be a great option too, allowing employees to seamlessly switch from breakfast to lunch menus in the cafeteria section.
Digital signage accomplishes two important goals of retail services: advertising high-margin products to your customers and saving employees time to use on higher-value tasks. You can even turn it into an additional passive revenue stream by selling advertising space on these screens.
Targeted Loyalty Programs
Modern shoppers both want and expect retailers to personalize their in-store experiences to some degree. For grocers, targeted rewards programs can be a tremendous driver of repeat business and customer loyalty.
Members of grocery loyalty programs spend more per order, as personalized offers increase conversion rates and encourage customers to bundle promotional items. In addition, the data insights allow grocers to make smarter, more informed merchandising decisions.
Integrating these systems with in-store kiosks and services is vital, enabling grocery store owners to offer rewards and discounts in real time. These measures can go a long way toward turning a one-time shopper into a frequent customer.
Multichannel Retail and Pickup Services
These days, a successful grocery store is more than a brick-and-mortar retailer: It also leverages its online presence to supplement and expand its customer base. Grocers can implement “click-and-collect” services that allow customers to order groceries online and pick up their order at the store.
This is another retail service that serves as a convenience feature, driving revenue by streamlining and improving the overall shopping experience. Furthermore, online shopping offers a myriad of opportunities for upsells. You can encourage customers to add related items to their cart, remind them of frequent purchases, and present a wider range of targeted promotions than you can in-store.
Community Services
Finally, connect with your local community by providing valuable services for your shoppers at no extra cost. For example, consider recycling initiatives like hosting an ecoATM kiosk or offering a battery collection service. These services boost your corporate sustainability profile and give customers more reasons to visit your store by combining multiple errands into one stop.
In addition, hosting local chefs to teach cooking classes in your store or inviting area Girl Scouts to sell cookies in your lobby builds goodwill in the community while generating foot traffic for your grocery store. Anything that makes shoppers think, “This store is an important part of my community,” is a good thing!
ecoATM: A Sustainable Retail Services Partner for Grocery Chains
With over 7,100 locations from coast to coast, ecoATM has become a nationally recognized sustainability partner for grocery chains, national retailers, convenience stores, money centers, wireless stores, malls, and more. Our partners are often high-traffic, broad-demographic retailers that align with our eco-friendly values.
There’s a reason household names like Walmart, Albertsons, Kroger, Dollar General, and more are already among our many retail partners. ecoATM is a proven revenue driver for grocery stores and other high-volume retailers, and partnering with us is a meaningful step toward fulfilling corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.
Plus, hosting an ecoATM kiosk has minimal operational burden for in-store staff. Our team handles site surveys, permitting, and installation, and there’s no upfront investment required from grocery store owners. ecoATM also takes care of maintenance, device collection, security, and customer support. In short, our self-service kiosks don’t require any attention from store employees.
Hosting an ecoATM is even more impactful when grocers combine it with other high-impact retail services. The right combination of services can help a grocery store increase foot traffic and build stronger customer loyalty without requiring major investments of either capital or manpower.
We collect over 135,000 devices each week, and 70% of the cash dispensed at our kiosks gets spent in the same store, creating a significant source of passive income for a grocery store. Reach out today to learn more about how ecoATM can be a difference-making retail service for your grocery chain or supermarket.
