The Fresh Market and Lidl occupy distinctly different segments of the grocery market: One is a specialty retailer that strives to stand out with a high-touch in-store experience and broad assortment of unique products, while the other is a discounter that prioritizes value and efficiency.
But while the chains might take different approaches to selling groceries, they share a belief that looking outside the U.S. for inspiration can help them shine, executives said during an online panel session hosted by retail data analytics firm Dunnhumby.
The Fresh Market believes that a key way to please shoppers is to fuel “flavor discovery” by looking around the world for goods to sell in its stores, said Emily Turner, chief marketing officer of The Fresh Market.
The chain, which runs more than 170 stores in 22 states, “stands for the fresh ideas, the fresh flavors that we bring to our guests — really how we inspire them to discover new tastes and new flavors and products from around the world,” said Turner.
Frank Kerr, senior vice president of operations for Lidl US, said the German grocer is striving to maintain excitement for shoppers by offering items they might not expect to find while also focusing on providing the ability to buy a full basket of goods — which it has sought to accentuate through the “Super-est Market” brand relaunch it unveiled last year.
Kerr noted that Lidl US, which runs about 170 stores in nine states and Washington, D.C., takes advantage of its position as part of an international grocery company to help it stand out.
“We’re able to directly partner with our international group, with other countries that operate in those markets, to get the highest quality products within those markets and bring them ultimately to the U.S. consumer,” he said.
Kerr also said Lidl has seen significant success with its effort to bring electronic shelf labels to its stores. The company has rolled out the technology to nearly all of its locations and believes the digital price displays have helped it convince shoppers that “they were getting the best value every time they chose to shop with us,” he said.
The electronic tags are “an engine for us to really allow our in-store team members to have more time to engage with the customers in-store, to provide that better shopping experience, instead of going through large ticket packs that would come down to the stores on a weekly basis,” Kerr said.
Lidl has also worked to update the back-end systems that drive its personalized offers that are meaningful to shoppers while also highlighting Lidl’s heavy emphasis on value, he said.
Turner noted that while The Fresh Market has added technology like ESLs and digital screens to connect with shoppers, the chain is also actively working to place less weight on the role digital systems play in defining the experience it provides shoppers. To accomplish that, the grocer has looked to inspire shoppers with recipe ideas and programs such as the live streams it produces with celebrity chef Anna Rossi.
“A lot of what we focus on is actually less digitizing the store to actually [focus on] the experiences that [are] going to lead a guest to choose The Fresh Market,” she said.
The Fresh Market has also brought back a print version of its magazine, which it had converted into an entirely digital format. While the retailer still has an online magazine, it has started to produce a paper-based version that Turner said is “like a mini magazine that really focuses on key products — key unique items that we want to showcase to our guests to influence that shopping trip.”
But while The Fresh Market is looking to draw people’s attention to specific products it hopes will resonate with them, it also wants to build interest among shoppers by encouraging them to try items they might not have thought of buying, Turner said.
“The fine line of how personalized we are is something that we play around with,” she said. “We don't want it to be that we are serving you promotions or products that we think that you’re going to buy because you buy them most often, because that doesn’t serve you as the guest … we know that you come to The Fresh Market because you want to find something new.”
