As specialty grocers fight to stay relevant and the grocery industry explores live and social commerce, The Fresh Market is so far seeing success in using shoppable content and livestreaming.
The Fresh Market has been working in recent months with live commerce platform Firework on content aimed at appealing to next-generation consumers.
On Monday, Firework said that since The Fresh Market implemented its video-driven customer experience platform, the grocery chain has seen key engagement metrics quickly grow. Facebook posts with Firework videos, as compared to posts without, saw a double-digit increase in click-through rate and ad recall.
As video dominates social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, The Fresh Market is looking to convince people browsing social media to go from scrolling to making purchases on its site.
Firework noted that a recent livestream showcasing The Fresh Market’s new Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, store attracted nearly five times (4.8x) more viewers on the livestream hosted on the grocer’s website than the social media simulcast. Overall, the event saw an eightfold increase in live engagement rates and a threefold increase in product click-through rates, compared to eMarketer industry averages cited by Firework.
As conventional retailers encroach on specialty grocers and the pandemic continues to disrupt shopping behaviors, digital innovation could help them grab the attention of younger customers. Already, several ethnic e-grocers, such as Weee and Umamicart, are leveraging shoppable content to make their food offerings more fun and accessible for customers.
Accenture has estimated the global social commerce industry will grow three times as fast as traditional e-commerce, from $492 billion in 2021 to $1.2 trillion by 2025.
