According to Bloomberg, Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods may be spurning future partnerships—and business decisions—in the grocery sector.
Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado Group Plc, a U.K.-based online grocer, notes that his company may now be interested in licensing technology to its U.S. counterpart. This, Steiner notes, is a result of Amazon’s Whole Foods deal, which has caused skeptical U.S. supermarket operators to reconsider the potential of the online market. In turn, U.S. grocers are flocking to take hold of Ocado’s e-commerce technologies.
Known as Ocado’s smart platform, the technology encompasses everything from grocery-picking robots to software that tracks delivery vans. With access to this technology, the aforementioned U.S. grocers would be able to increase their presence in the world of online grocery—a realm that analyst Marc Astrachan of Stifel Nicolaus & Co. projects could grow to 6 per cent over the next five years.
With this in mind, Canadian retailers must keep their e-commerce capabilities up-to-date. Investing in better technologies as well as branching out online could be the key to future success—especially when it comes to competing with Amazon.
