Dive Brief:

• Rosie, an e-commerce site for independent retailers, has added a new “Collections” functionality to its website to enable retailers to promote particular products within their online shops, the company announced Tuesday. 
• Launched in late 2020, the new tool is aimed at retailers looking to showcase particular aspects of their sales inventory, such as seasonal offerings, meal planning suggestions, vendor-sponsored deals, locally-sourced or specialty goods and multi-aisle purchases. Rosie noted that the feature allows grocers to group items online that normally wouldn't get paired in-store, like perishable and non-perishable items or products across departments. 
• The announcement comes just after Rosie raised $10 million in Series A funding, which the company said it will utilize, in part, to introduce more user-friendly features.

Dive Insight:

Rosie has been working on a series of improvements to its app interface for both buyers and sellers as e-commerce has adapted to its record usage numbers over the last year. In December, Rosie released Shop, an online storefront and the first major phase of its “leveled-up” initiative to advance the platform for desktop and mobile devices. Founder and CEO Nick Nickitas has emphasized the platform’s goals of scaling with new and existing partners as well as continuing to develop products and its “tech roadmap." 

Grocery e-commerce is generally associated with less brand experimentation and browsing, so interfaces like Rosie’s Collections are designed to spotlight products that cater to particular tastes or values. In addition, retailers and third parties are looking for ways to extend the time shoppers spend on their sites and direct them to products they wouldn’t otherwise seek out.

Rosie has strategic partnerships with hundreds of retailers across the U.S. Its Cater platform, which also launched in December, lets retailers sell catering solutions and prepared meals with additional lead times and customization options built into the interface. 

Rosie has also worked with ShoptoCook on an omnichannel digital marketing platform for local grocers, as well as with DoorDash for order fulfillment. By collaborating with other digital-native companies and boosting its technological capabilities, Rosie is aiming to stay competitive in the grocery e-commerce space dominated by retailers such as Amazon and Target.