Groceryshop 2018

The Coresight Research team will be attending and participating in the Groceryshop 2018 conference, which runs October 28–31in Las Vegas. The team behind the Shoptalk retail and e-commerce conference founded this new event, which will cover the disruption of the grocery, CPG and related industries. Coresight Research has previously partnered with Shoptalk to host that conference’s annual startup pitch competition. Groceryshop is expected to bring together 1,000 attendees and more than 150 speakers. Discussion topics will include the transformation of the retail industry, including convenience stores, supermarkets and e-commerce, and changes in the production and distribution of CPGs across multiple retail verticals. Additionally, the event will cover the rapid shifts in how consumers discover, shop and buy—from the use of new technologies and business models to the latest trends in consumer behaviors, preferences and expectations. According to Zia Daniell Wigder, Cofounder of Groceryshop and Chief Content Officer of Shoptalk, Groceryshop was created to meet the needs of a sector on the verge of a massive shift. The percentage of grocery sales made online in the US is only 2%–3%, significantly lower than for other categories such as apparel and electronics, where e-commerce accounts for about 20% of sales, Wigder said. Over the next few years, new omnichannel grocery offerings will likely go mainstream, providing consumers with new experiences as well as more convenient delivery and pickup options. Digital platforms that offer the best mix of price, selection and convenience will see increased transaction volume, while physical stores will experience change and likely play a key role in online order fulfillment.

Startup Pitch Competition

On October 28, Coresight Research CEO and Founder Deborah Weinswig will emcee a startup pitch competition featuring 12 innovative, early-stage technology companies that provide solutions to solve major problems in e-commerce, grocery retail, and/or the food or CPG sector. Each company will present its business to a panel of judges from the investment community and to the audience. Two winners will be announced, one chosen by the panel of judges and one by audience vote, and each winner will be awarded $10,000. Groceryshop curated the participating startups based on their solutions to some of the most pressing challenges that grocery, e-commerce, food and CPG companies are facing. All of the participating startups have less than $3 million in funding, provide business-to-business (B2B) solutions and were founded in 2014 or later. We categorized the 12 companies into four buckets of retail disruption:

• Sourcing, Merchandising and Cataloging: Shoppers are demanding more grocery choices than ever before, and grocery retailers face challenges in keeping their assortments up to date and in sync with consumer demand.
• Enabling Grocery E-Commerce: Providing engaging and personalized online experiences while meeting consumer expectations regarding fulfillment and delivery is crucial for retailers.
• Improved Shopping Experiences: Shoppers are demanding intuitive and more seamless grocery experiences both online and in stores.
• Tracking, Measurement and Insights: Digital technology is creating new metrics and capabilities for gleaning insights for grocery retailers and CPG manufacturers.

Below, we profile Simplista, one of the companies participating in the startup pitch competition at Groceryshop. We categorize Simplista as being in the Sourcing, Merchandising and Cataloging group.

Simplista

Company Description

Simplista offers a cloud-based, B2Bproduct-listing platform that helps retailers get new items on boarded from suppliers through to back-end systems in days rather than weeks or months. Specifically designed for SKU-intensive grocery retailers, Simplista enables weeks of additional sales of grocers’ items by improving the product-listing process.The company’s next-generation platform on boards items from any source, automatically integrates supplier and retailer data, and then publishes accurate listings directly into back-end systems, all in real time.

Market Overview

Business process management efforts are primarily designed to increase process efficiency and standardization by properly allocating business focus and resources as required by the task at hand. According to research from Mordor Intelligence, the business process management market was valued at $3.01 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.22% until 2023, to reach $4.3 billion.

What Problem Is the Company Solving?

Today’s retail product–listing process is often slow, complicated and costly, resulting in $300 billion in missed revenue opportunities each year.It takes thousands of data attributes and teams of people to capture the product information needed to put a single product on store shelves. For example, for a retailer with seven divisions, moving a bottle of ketchup from supplier to shelf requires about 2,400 data attributes and approximately 30 human touch points. Large grocery retailers list several hundred thousand new products per year, which can make the listing process very costly. Meanwhile, suppliers are frustrated because their revenue is delayed until their product hits the shelves. They often have no visibility into the listing process,and the process seems to take much too long.

Headquarters

Toronto, Canada

Funding Stage

Seed ($2.8 million)

Business Model

Simplista operates on a SaaS subscription model.

Management Team

Founder and CEO Evan Silver has more than 20 years of technology delivery experience. He previously founded a successful analytics consulting firm and has also worked with Canadian retail giant Loblaw Companies; major telecom companies such as Rogers Communications, Telus and Bell; and financial services firms CIBC and BMO. Chief Technical Architect Peter Norris has more than 35 years of experience in ERP integration and Internet architecture.Key Advisor Bruce Burrows is the former CIO and EVP of IT at Loblaw Companies.

Company Outlook

Simplista aims to accelerate the product-listing process across all retail sectors, and then enable new product discovery, giving suppliers additional channels to sell new products.