'People don't even shop like we do anymore': How stores are creating personalized experiences

Entertainment and customer convenience: That's what brick-and-mortar grocery stores are going to offer to entice shoppers inside rather than using curbside pickup or delivery to the home.

Shoppers spend more time shopping when they're physically inside the store, said John Stanton, professor of food marketing in the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

They'll buy items that they need but forgot to add to their list, or they'll pick up something they hadn't intended to purchase.

Creating the 'best customer experiences' for shoppers

So with grocery pickup and delivery growing, which means a loss in incremental dollars for businesses, stores need to find more ways to bring shoppers inside. That will come through customer experience and entertainment.

"The best customer experiences are ones where the primary aim is to drive shopper engagement than just trying to sell more products," said Marco Castelan, co-founder of The Navio Group, a business management consulting firm that has worked with Whole Foods and Meijer, a supermarket company in the Midwest.

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In Chicago, for example, Mariano's offers live piano music, a bar, cooking classes and weekly events, he said.

At Stew Leonard's Farm Fresh Foods in New York and Connecticut, children can meet Clover the Cow walking around the store or be entertained by animatronics. The chain also offers in-store dining.

Convenience and variety are still key

Convenience is an important attribute, too, Stanton said. More stores are offering prepared foods, which is growing in popularity.

A Shop Rite store in the Philadelphia area offers about 12 different soups and a variety of food bars that feature Italian, vegetarian and other options, he said. It's located in the front of the store so customers can go in, buy what they want and leave.

Grocery stores will be personalizing the experience for their customers whether it will be online or in the building, said Bree Bergman, vertical marketing lead for retail and hospitality with Zebra Technologies.

More robots, such as Marty at Giant Food Stores, will be coming and handling more tasks, such as doing food temperature checks, she said. It will help free up employees, who then can focus on other tasks, such as selecting orders for online shoppers.

"... the more personalized and the more attention you give the consumer, the more loyal they are," she said.

'People don't even shop like we do anymore'

Personal shopping is an evolving market in the United States, and Zebra Technologies markets a mobile computing device that sits on the cart, Bergman said. Shoppers log in with their loyalty cards, receive a map of the store and are directed to find items on their list.

They can scan the products as they put them in the cart, saving them time, she said. Shoppers can scan the device at a kiosk area, and it checks them out automatically.

For many in Europe, "people don't even shop like we do anymore," she said. "They always use a personal shopping device to go through the store."