Since the start of the pandemic, the grocery sector has seen more change in the last two years than it has in the previous decade with retailers quickly implementing new technology that was perhaps planned for a more gradual release over the next decade.

According to the Editors at Supermarket News, more online and more food at home is what we should expect to see in the grocery game in 2022.

Russ Redman and Michael Browne predict that online sales will represent more than 15 percent of grocery retail sales in 2022 (up from 10 percent at the end of 2021) - and that food-at-home will increase through the first half of 2022 as COVID concerns, inflation and high restaurant prices push consumers to grocery stores.

Retailers will continue to advance the omnichannel shopping experience - which is the term for in-store and online shopping experiences.



To accommodate increased online demand and achieve e-commerce profitability, grocery retailers and distributors will expedite the rollout of automated micro-fulfillment centers.

The private label market share is predicted to increase as grocers look to boost their own brands on their digital properties and alongside these offerings, supermarkets will see big growth in prepared meal services, both in-store and online "order ahead" offerings.

In this next segment, we'll showcase some of the top tech innovations in the grocery game as the need for new, high-tech modes of fulfillment, delivery and ordering has led to a boom in retail technology such as driverless cars, drone deliveries, A.I.-powered fulfillment centers and robotic delivery carts.

2022 should see a lot more grocery chains get onboard with Automated Micro-fulfillment Centers (or MFC's) in response to the surge in e-commerce business.



MFC's started as converted store spaces or back rooms dedicated to online order fulfillment however a growing number of retail chains are now building Automated MFC's and are even creating dedicated "Dark Stores" without any retail space for customers.

As the need for automation increases, grocery chains have been busy testing and implementing AI-powered solutions from robotic warehouses to smart shopping carts to robotic delivery carts.

Kroger introduced its first Ocado robotic warehouse in 2021 in Monroe Ohio which was one of 20 planned for the USA.

The 375,000 square feet robotic warehouse would carry thousands of popular grocery products and would be able to fulfill thousands of delivery orders daily.

Both Safeway & Shoprite piloted robotic grocery delivery carts to deliver online orders to customers' homes.

The cart from Mountain View, California-based Tortoise can carry up to 120 pounds of groceries — including ambient, chilled and frozen items — in lockable containers.

On the inventory management side, Hy-Vee began testing a Shelf-Scanning Robot which would provide autonomous inventory management.



Also in 2021, Amazon opened its first Amazon Fresh supermarkets with the "Just Walk Out" cashierless technology that was pioneered in its smaller Amazon Go convenience stores.

Amazon is also bringing its Amazon One palm-scanning payment system to its Whole Foods Market which uses custom-built algorithms and hardware to scan a person's unique palm signature for contactless and automated checkout.

The future for grocery retail looks both exciting and intimidating and on that note we will end this episode here but to see more exciting tech innovations please refer to the report below this video.

Read More Tech Innovations Here!

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