Retailing 2020: Online, offline, or both?
Day two ended with a fascinating glimpse at how the retail market is evolving, featuring Tom Burkemper from 7-Eleven plus the bosses of H.U.M.A.N. Healthy Markets (unattended healthy vending machines and micro markets in schools and the workplace, plus snacking delivery services); NatureBox (snacking subscription services); and Door to Door Organics (online organic produce boxes), who explored the challenges and opportunities of cutting out the middleman and dealing directly with the end consumer.
While intuitively, these services might seem to likely to resonate most with higher income consumers on the east and west coasts in urban areas, they are actually doing just as well in suburban and rural areas, and mid-western states, where consumers may not have such easy access to bricks and mortar stores selling the brands and products they are looking for, said NatureBox co-founder Gautam Gupta.
Every customer that comes to NatureBox also sees options based on their preferences - "just like Netflix" - said Gupta.
We also learned that iPhone users are more into high protein, high-fiber, gluten-free snacks, while Android users are more into low calorie and low fat products, said Gupta.
Picture: John Borowski
