In grocery retail, delivering a superior consumer experience has become a critical differentiator in an increasingly competitive market, especially as today’s consumers have more options than ever. Consumers have choices ranging from how they shop—from in-store shopping to mobile apps and online platforms—to where they shop, with more competition on loyalty, price and range.  

To earn customer loyalty, grocers must go beyond offering competitive pricing and product variety to provide an enjoyable shopping experience that drives satisfaction, repeat visits and positive word-of-mouth. When customers feel valued and engaged, they are more likely to return, ultimately giving retailers a strategic advantage in a crowded marketplace. Focusing on personalized promotions, efficient checkout processes and knowledgeable in-store assistance enables grocery retailers to create a shopping environment that meets and exceeds customer expectations. Edge technology is a key enabler of this transformation, empowering retailers to deliver the experiences that customers value and expect.  

Leverage edge technology to meet modern consumer expectations  

Shoppers want a seamless in-store experience but are often unaware of the advanced technology working behind the scenes to make it possible. With 87% of grocery transactions still taking place in physical stores, it’s essential for retailers to maintain the highest operational standards for in-store technology. As margin pressures intensify, the primary challenge for grocery retailers lies in how they leverage technology. It’s not enough to meet current consumer expectations; to succeed in today’s commercial landscape, retailers must focus on future-proofing their stores. Edge technology is the driving force behind the new retail experience, optimizing both front and back-end operations to deliver a smooth, responsive, and efficient shopping journey. IDC’s Technology Spotlight “The Urgency of Running Retail Edge Infrastructure for Stores,” highlighted the importance of investing in an edge strategy: “Until now, many retailers have focused on the cloud, without recognizing the need to incorporate the edge. In short, if you don’t have an edge strategy, you don’t have a cloud strategy.”  

Processing data in real-time: to increase customer satisfaction

Retailers have access to an increasingly advanced range of technology to deploy in stores—from cameras and computer vision to RFID sensors, electronic shelf labels and customer interaction devices—much of which relies on AI and machine learning. The common factor among these technologies is their time-sensitive nature; to provide optimal results, they must process data in real time. Here, edge technology is critical, offering an agile, secure infrastructure that enables rapid, localized data processing at individual stores.  

Recent edge technology applications driving positive impacts on grocery retailers' bottom lines include dynamic pricing strategies, which help minimize shrink from expired inventory, and dynamic marketing that delivers targeted promotions to the right customers at the optimal time. This localized approach reduces latency by managing data closer to where customer interactions occur, ensuring that in-store touchpoints like self-checkouts, digital signage and mobile ordering systems function seamlessly.  The result is real-time inventory updates and personalized promotions, providing customers with accurate product information and tailored offers to enhance their shopping experience.

Delivering an engaging in-store experience through new and updated applications requires a secure, edge-enabled infrastructure. Retailers need confidence that they can roll out in-store updates and deploy customer-facing features as swiftly as they can on digital channels like mobile apps and websites. In large grocery chains, hundreds of maintenance updates occur behind the scenes across the store network, often targeting critical applications such as point-of-sale and self-checkout systems. To maintain smooth day-to-day operations and ensure a consistent customer experience, an agile, resilient edge infrastructure is essential. US grocers, for example, typically make an average of 86 maintenance updates to their store technology systems per year, underscoring the need for a system that ensures reliability at scale.

Building resilience and security with edge infrastructure

Grocers must ensure maximum resilience against technology disruptions, eliminating single points of failure across store systems. Recent events, such as the CrowdStrike-Windows outage, have prompted CISOs to scrutinize their security posture more closely. Edge technology offers a distinct advantage with its distributed architecture, enhancing data security by retaining sensitive information within the store’s network. This not only bolsters customer trust but also improves real-time performance and system resilience. For retailers, the outcome is an agile, connected shopping environment that swiftly adapts to evolving customer needs.

The future is containerized

While many grocers are constrained by legacy technology - with 93% of U.S. and 85% of European major grocery retailers reporting they lack a fully implemented retail edge plan – the adoption of edge infrastructure with containerized microservices is clearly accelerating and becoming integral to retail technology strategies. Nearly 70% of grocery retail IT leaders expect most of their in-store software to transition to containerized environments within the next 1-5 years, with 57% of European respondents expecting the same shift.

NCR Voyix has embraced this transformation by providing the industry’s only edge-native infrastructure purpose-built for retail stores. Applications can be updated at cloud speed while maintaining local store resilience and operated at scale through centralized infrastructure and application lifecycle management. Deployed across a number of major international grocers, NCR Voyix Edge empowers retailers with continuous operations, offering rollback capabilities to safeguard against update failures. This ensures store technology remains consistently reliable, supporting business continuity and enhancing customer experience.  

Explore the edge revolution

The latest Censuswide report, Grocery IT: The Edge Revolution, commissioned by NCR Voyix, includes both US and European reports that highlights the key challenges grocery retailers face in managing store applications, current levels of edge adoption and the benefits of implementing edge infrastructure across store estates.  

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