There hasn't been a lot of good studies on the implications of this trend for the grocery industry, but the infographic below comes from one them.  The study, titled Moving Forward with Big Data: The future of retail analytics was put together and can be downloaded from the team at bricksmeetclicks.com.  

The infographic below shows some of the highlights from the study (you can click the image for a high resolution version).  We thought it worthwhile posting as there were some interesting talking points.

Although most respondents of the study indentified the need or desire to leverage Big Data tools, and even 65% of respondents said they were involved in a Big Data project, what really intersted us were the perceived barriers to entry.  

The top three concerns with implementing Big Data strategies were:

1. Concern about not using data already available (58%)

2. Lack of capability to implement insights (57%)

3. Not enough specialized expertise

These three concerns are top of the list not so much because they are necessarily real justified concerns, but more so because they are a response to the type of Big Data solutions that grocery retailers are being pitched or sold.  Grocery retailing is particular, with particular needs, and particular data sets and value pools.  Big Data solutions that work in other industries do not directly relate.

With the aim of exploring this further, I will detail some examples of why we believe that these top three responses are more a response to the Big Data solutions in the market, rather than Big Data as a strategy.

Concern about not using data already available:

This concern comes not only from the fact that grocery retailers are not using existing data sets to generate insights, but that they are getting pitched to use Big Data strategies on new data sets that are irrelevant for their needs.  The thing with Big Data strategies is that it's about extrapolating some kind of insight from vast amounts of data that don't necessarily have a lot of value individually or in small volumes.   The problem is that grocery doesn't always have the volume of relevant data needed - take sentiment analysis from social data.

We have seen grocery retailers pitched (and sold) on leveraging Big Data strategies on their social data to measure sentiment of their customers.  The problem with this is that the large majority of grocery retailers have very little social data to mine.  In the very brief table below i've researched the Twitter mentions for 4 random retailers (below) and you can see that with the exception of Walmart most retailers don't have anything close to a deep enough data set to be reflective of their customer set.

Twitter mentions:

Walmart - 8mm mentions, Meijer - 208k mentions, Schnucks - 22k mentions, Shoprite - 87k mentions

Lack of capability to implement insights:

Many of the big data solutions that we've seen in the grocery industry promise a bevy of insight on customer behavior, sentiment analysis, inventory analysis, marketing trends; but very few of them tie directly in to practical ways to implement the insights.  A large part of the reason for this is because it's not easy to implement these insights in grocery due to the complexity of the path to purchase (or more importantly the multiple paths to purchase).

By definition, the path of purchase to BestBuy to purchase a single item is less complex than the multiple decisions being made at each grocery trip.  Grocery Retailers need simple insights with direct practical and flexible applications; such as being able to customize shelf tags, customizing direct emails, delivering custom content online or via mobile.  

There are few Big Data solutions in the grocery market that are tied to a holistic path of implmentation and this is another reason why the industry is weary of the "Big Data" tag.

Not enough specialized expertise:

At face value this is an understandable concern related to implementing Big Data solutions in grocery, but again, upon closer inspection we suspect that this too is a reaction to the "black box" magic of Big Data as it is often sold in the market. 

The number of times we have seen Big Data solutions sold as a "Black Box" Solution - plug this in to our black box and watch as the result comes out the other side - is too many to count.  It seems to be a basic axiom of Big Data strategies - and a great promise at that.  The problem  is that if anyone is going to take the risk of championing a Big Data solution, they need to be able to have some basic logical understanding of the process before they can put their support behind it.

We would argue that a reason for concern about not having enough specialized expertise is the uncertainty associated with "Black Box" solutions. 

In truth there can be a need for some specialized guidance, but it is more important for grocers to be firm on the questions THEY want answered and they should instead demand that the providers of Big Data solutions gain specialized expertise in their concerns.

And, it is with this last point that we will sign off on from this post. 

If there is one thing we have learnt in all our dealings with data and our clients, it is that THE single most important thing is to ensure that the clients QUESTIONS are clearly outlined and detailed before any work can proceed. 

Insight from data analysis is only ever as powerful as the questions that are asked - this is where competitive advantage will be found in the future.

To say that we've been busy is an understatement.  If the analogy of a start-up is to learn to fly a plane while constructing it... we were not only trying to fly 3 planes but land them all at once...at night...in a storm... without brakes!!  Thankfully, we're on the other side of flight school and although we can't say we got through unscathed (we all have many more grey hairs than we did 6 months ago) we perservered AND the experiment turned out to be incredibly successful to boot.

In the last 6 months with the help of our channel partner we have signed 7 retailers up for the program, truly proving the demand.  We have launched, executed, iterated, improved, and spent time honing the technology so that we can now attack scaling!  Our data is being displayed in over 2000 stores nation wide, at our estimates that is approximately, 20 million shopper visits being influenced every week*.  Now admittedly, our data is not displayed on every product in a store, but on average about 70% of products will have an attribute - so there's a fairly high probability that most visits would at some point come across our data.

If you add this to our increasing LabelAPI traffic, now at over 5 million calls a month we are getting up to over a 100 million views a month on our data.  Of course these are all vanity metrics and don't mean a thing, except that, well...we're heading in the right direction and we're doing a great job.  

Most of our core operating metrics right now are, by design, there to show us what's going wrong and how best to solve the challenges that we face - be more effective, more efficient, faster, leaner, better.  So every now and then it's nice to be able to draw up some back of napkin metrics that show we're heading in the right direction.  Vanity metrics or not, we're making a difference in people's lives.  It's incredibly hard work, and it'll probably get even harder, but for the time being at least we can pause, pat ourselves on the back and say, "You know what, we've achieved a lot in the last 6 months - imagine where we'll be in 6 months time".

We have a really strong young team that works well together.  Our performance as a professional outfit is considerably greater than the sum of our individual parts.  We learn from our mistakes, we support each other, and everyone is learning to become an entrepreneur in his or her own right - problem solving with the best of them.  We've still got a long way to go and a growing list of exciting (read challenging) opportunities ahead, a few of which could be game changers.  We're quietly confident.  

The continual challenge with start-ups these days is being sure to take the time to see the forest from the trees.  It's the one time where I think vanity metrics can actually provide a lot of value.  

And with that, we have to get back to it.  See you in 6 months time with another vanity check!!

*based on 10,000 shopper visits per store per week - average sales per store per week / average sales per transaction  

Btw for more info on the problems with vanity metrics check this out - Lessons Learned: Why vanity metrics are dangerous (Eric Ries)

Being new to STL and Missouri, we weren't familiar with what the best forums would be beyond our world in T-Rex.  Fortunately we were contacted by Chris Walsh of InvestMidWest who educated us about this start-up institution. 

For those who may not be aware, InvestMidWest is the premier venture conference in the mid-west.  This year was the 14th edition and would include over 50+ companies in 3 tracks (Technology, Lifesciences, Food and Ag and Biotech) and would be attended by over 300+ attendees from the top venture capital firms in the mid-west and nationally.

And so we headed down to Kansas City this last week excited to announce the opening of our round and talk about our progress as a company.  It was a great event and fantastic to see how strong the STL presence was.  There were mature startup companies like Bonfyre, Coolfire as well as younger companies like ourselves, click with me now, and Benson Hill Biosystems. 

We were very happy with the response to our pitch and suprised by the willingness for investors to want to connect and learn more - the event format really puts the startups in among the investors.  The camaraderie within the STL startups and community leaders (Cultivation Capital, ITEN, mentors and business leaders) was also a pleasant surprise and helped to keep the nerves in check.  The event was well organized and well attended - a testament to the hard work of Chris Walsh and her team.  We look forward to being involved again in the future and hearing of all the funding annoucements that will, no doubt, be a result of the event. 

If you're a startup in the midwest or an investor looking to hear exciting new ideas InvestMidwest is the place to go.

incidentally, for what it's worth, my favorite (non STL) startups from the event were: Red Clay (product design platform), Georama (one stop travel planning), and Proviera Biotech (green leather tanning).

About FoodEssentials

About Cultivation Capital

As platinum partners with Mashery, our api management and promotion partner, we will be 1 of 9 companies with a presence in the Circus Mashimus tent - one of the hotest destinations at SXSW interactive.  

Launching the Personal Product Score

At SXSW we will be launching our Personal Product Score (PPS) to our 250 Labelapi developers and the public at large.  The Personalized Product score provides developers with the ability to build sophisticated applications that deliver a custom score based on any persons indivudal needs.  

In this first iteration users are able to personalize their profile to include any nutrient, allergen, and additive properties and receive a score of between 0 and 100 it also includes negative scores down to -100 of a product contains things like an allergen you are trying to avoid.

We received a lot of feedback from our community asking for this type of functionality and are therefore excited to be launching it and even more excited to see the innovation that takes place on top of it.  

As a starting point we've put together a little app that demonstrates the base functionality of the Personalized Product Score - we've affectionately called it Fooddood. You can check the app out in the below links (please remember that we are data guys - first and foremost). 

If any of you would like the code for the apps we are happy to make it available.

Fooddood (Fun demo app for Personalized Product Score)

About Circus Mashimus

Circus Mashimus is Hosted by Mashery, and is the place to network, nosh, charge up or just hang out. Drop by and find out why Jason Cranfordteague of Wired said in 2011, "Whether you are looking for food, drink or even clothes, there's no better place to hang out than the Circus Mashimus."

Throughout the day, you can see demos of the most innovative and transformative mashups from ACTIVE Network, CarePass, Edmunds.com, ESPN, FoodEssentials, PeerIndex, SurveyMonkey, TMS and Whitl.li.

The Circus opens on Friday at 1:00 pm, and Saturday — Monday at 9:00am with coffee and pastries. At 4:00 pm we tap the kegs, open the wine and other beverages, and serve up chips and guacamole while cranking up the music for our daily Happy Hour.

Our annual favorite features are all back: free wifi, all-you-can-eat popcorn, phone charging stations, and comfy sofas.

Circus Mashimus is located at the Austin Convention Center in Room 3 near the main entrance on Trinity Street.

Winning teams leveraged FoodEssentials' LabelAPI teams to  create innovative solutions to help users manage their personal health on issues ranging from weight loss to food allergies

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) February 19, 2013

MedHelp, the world’s largest online health community and the world’s largest repository of self-reported medical data, today announced the winners of its first “Hacking Health” hackathon held February 8-10. The sold-out weekend-long event held at MedHelp’s headquarters in San Francisco, California had teams of developers and designers from all over the Bay Area working all hours to develop the most creative and innovative technology solution using MedHelp’s newly-launched health data platform. Hackathon sponsor FoodEssentials also opened up their API for teams who wished to leverage both MedHelp’s and FoodEssentials’ platforms to develop their submission.

Teams presented technology solutions across several platforms with the goal of solving health issues ranging from weight loss to food allergies. The technology solutions were judged based on innovation, impact, user experience, and use of presented technology.

“The MedHelp ‘Hacking Health’ Hackathon was a great way to celebrate the launch of MedHelp’s health API in addition to promoting innovation that intersects health and technology,” said Hassounah. “We challenged the developers to create a completely new and exciting custom health experience by using MedHelp’s platform and our database of more than 100 million data points. And the result was fabulous—every team that presented had an amazing idea that, if pursued, could gain traction in the marketplace and truly help people lead healthier lives.”

The winning solutions were:

First place:
·    App: Rhino
·    Type: Mobile web app
·    App Description: Rhino helps make nutrition labels relevant for anybody by personalizing the label to fit an individual's body type and weight-loss goals.
·    Team Name: Team Spontaneity
·    Team members: Jeremia Kimelman, Benjamin Kimelman, Marco Segreto

Second place:
·    App: Food Guard
·    Type: Android and iPhone app
·    App Description: FoodGuard is a mobile app that provides a way to scan a product barcode to see if the product contains any allergens the user wants to avoid.
·    Team Name: Food Guardians
·    Team members: Daisuke Fujiwara, Amit Aggarwal, Judy He, Charles Finkel

Third place:
·    App: Futuresize.me
·    Type: Web app
·    App Description: Futuresize.me allows users to take a picture of themselves and see what their bodies would look like in the future, based on their caloric intake.
·    Team Name: Futuresizers
·    Team members: Srihari Yamanoor, Edward Wang, Ro-el Cordero, Emily Desanctis

“MedHelp’s ‘Hacking Health’ Hackathon was a great opportunity to power health-related solutions using our data and great exposure for FoodEssentials in the Bay Area,” said Ronak Sheth, Executive Vice President of Product and Strategy for FoodEssentials. “There was a lot of excitement around our data and we’re very happy some of the top teams integrated our API into their solutions. We hope it is the first of many partnership events between FoodEssentials and MedHelp.”

MedHelp’s health API gives third-party developers the opportunity to tap into MedHelp’s millions-strong user community, its more than 100 million self-reported medical data points, and integrated health device partners including Zeo, Withings, and Fitbit. This gives developers a world-class health data framework on which to build, and instant access to an engaged and targeted audience, allowing them to quickly add value to a burgeoning health data ecosystem.

For a first look into MedHelp's "Hacking Health" Hackathon, check out the video at http://vimeo.com/59874718.

Online tools and resources are available through MedHelp’s developer portal at http://developer.medhelp.org.

About MedHelp
As the world’s largest online health community, 12 million unique users turn to MedHelp each month to achieve better health. With communities providing support for more than 300 conditions, forums that connect users to doctors across the country, and partnerships with leading medical institutions including 7 of the 10 top U.S. hospitals, MedHelp provides unparalleled access to information and advice tailored to consumers’ personal health needs. MedHelp's suite of 50 online health tools, award-winning mobile apps, and seamless integration with numerous health devices create a robust destination for consumers to engage with and track their health. By closely connecting experts, support communities, information and health tools, MedHelp empowers millions of people to be their healthiest each and every day. For more information, visit http://www.medhelp.org.

About FoodEssentials
FoodEssentials is a young and vibrant company developing best of breed technologies to solve problems related to food label data for consumers, manufacturers, retailers, and the government. Our LabelAPI allows developers to access the world's most powerful product label database to build creative, powerful, and innovative solutions utilizing our data.

The FoodEssentials team is a fine balance of product knowledge, technological expertise and creativity. We are headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and have personnel based in Australia, Europe, and Asia. FoodEssentials is a truly international, modern and exciting young company leveraging best of breed technologies for both data, communications and management processes. Everyone in the team is motivated by the potential for FoodEssentials to make a difference in how people choose foods. For more information, visit http://www.foodessentials.com.

After Developer Week concludes, developers from all over the Bay Area will convene at MedHelp’s San Francisco headquarters Feb. 8-10 to build on MedHelp’s new health API

February 04, 2013 - MedHelp, the world’s largest online health community and the world’s largest repository of self-reported medical data, is opening its doors to developers interested in health that can still hack it for one more weekend after Developer Week concludes. MedHelp is hosting its first ever “Hacking Health” hackathon Friday, February 8, 2013 through Sunday, February 10, 2013 at MedHelp’s headquarters in San Francisco, California. In this sold-out event, more than seventy developers and designers from all over the Bay Area will collaborate and compete to build the most creative and innovative technology solutions on MedHelp’s newly-launched health data platform.

MedHelp’s health API gives third-party developers the opportunity to tap into MedHelp’s millions-strong user community, its more than 100 million self-reported medical data points, and integrated health device partners including Zeo, Withings, and Fitbit. This gives developers a world-class health data framework on which to build, and instant access to an engaged and targeted audience, allowing them to quickly add value to a burgeoning health data ecosystem. Participants are encouraged to be creative in their developments—web applications, mobiles applications, robots or anything else they can dream up are welcome.

“The ‘Hacking Health’ Hackathon is a fun way to introduce MedHelp’s health API, get to know the Bay Area developer community, and better understand how they will use the API,” said Khaled Hassounah, MedHelp’s CTO. “We’re very excited to see what the developers’ and designers’ innovative imaginations will produce in such a challengingly limited amount of time.”

Teams of up to four participants will spend all day and night for a total of 24 hours developing their technology solutions for MedHelp’s health API. Each team will have the chance to demo their creations following the conclusion of the hackathon on Sunday. An all-star panel of judges—Canaan Partner’s Ross Fubini, 100Plus’s CEO and Co-Founder Chriss Hogg, and MedHelp’s Hassounah—will review the apps and award fame, fortune, and swag to first-, second-, and third-place teams. The submissions will be judged on the following criteria: innovation and ambition, user interface and experience, overall quality, quality of impact, and use of presented technology.

Highlights of MedHelp’s “Hacking Health” Hackathon include an idea-pitching happy hour on Friday evening with pre-dinner nosh and libations; music by DJ Fishstixx; a steady supply of caffeine and a variety of eats for carnivores and vegetarians alike; and more. Event sponsor Food Essentials will also open up their API for teams who wish to leverage both MedHelp’s and Food Essentials’ platforms to develop their submission.

Online tools and resources are available through MedHelp’s developer portal at http://developer.medhelp.org.

For more information, check out http://www.medhelphackinghealth.eventbrite.com and follow @MedHelpHapi for real-time updates during the “Hacking Health” Hackathon.

About MedHelp
As the world’s largest online health community, 12 million unique users turn to MedHelp each month to achieve better health. With communities providing support for more than 300 conditions, forums that connect users to doctors across the country, and partnerships with leading medical institutions including 7 of the 10 top U.S. hospitals, MedHelp provides unparalleled access to information and advice tailored to consumers’ personal health needs. MedHelp's suite of 50 online health tools, award-winning mobile apps, and seamless integration with numerous health devices create a robust destination for consumers to engage with and track their health. By closely connecting experts, support communities, information and health tools, MedHelp empowers millions of people to be their healthiest each and every day. For more information, visit http://www.medhelp.org.

About FoodEssentials
FoodEssentials is a young and vibrant company developing best of breed technologies to solve problems related to food label data for consumers, manufacturers, retailers, and the government. Our LabelAPI allows developers to access the world's most powerful product label database to build creative, powerful, and innovative solutions utilizing our data.

The FoodEssentials team is a fine balance of product knowledge, technological expertise and creativity. We are headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and have personnel based in Australia, Europe, and Asia. FoodEssentials is a truly international, modern and exciting young company leveraging best of breed technologies for both data, communications and management processes. Everyone in the team is motivated by the potential for FoodEssentials to make a difference in how people choose foods. For more information, visit http://www.foodessentials.com.

Showrooming - buying products online whilst or after checking them out inside the store is one of the larger trends that has been on retailers minds for some time now.  Traditionally the argument has been made that people were driven to showrooming for price savings.  And although this may be true to some degree it never really fit with our experience.  

We surveyed our team and found that for most people, although price was at times the reason for online purchases, most often or not it was because of the 'convenience' and the ability to not have to deal with a certain customer experience.

The study, produced by the Kellogg Center for Global Marketing Practice, draws some facinating conculsions, such as the fact that 59% of of participating shoppers reported that they had experienced poor or average service in the store.  Or even more interstingly that 40% of respondents had not initially intended to purchase online but were driven to do so after poor customer service.

If these numbers prove to be true they seem to indicate that the online experience is not only trumping on price but also in experience - people prefer the convenience and experience online than being in store with poor to average customer experiences.  

The fact of the matter is that when we interact with people we prefer the experience to be positive.  If it's not going to be and there's an alternative we'll take the alternative each time.

Now although this relates more immediately to big ticket items where there's a better price, a single purchase, and lots of info online; it's not going to be long before it also relates to grocery.  Look at the work Amazon is already doing in drawing in customers to purchase regular provisions online such as shampoo etc.  

The great news is that grocers are in the business of serving communities and most are presently exploring new ways to leverage technology to augment their customer service, which we think is the best thing they could possibly be doing at this time.