Headed by a dynamic and articulate retail industry thought leader, Sylvain Perrier, President and CEO, Mercatus is helping grocers adopt this change and cater to the ever-evolving needs of today’s shoppers.

1. retailciooutlook.com $10
December-2016
Anishiya Taneja,
CIO,
Serena & Lily
Advait Kulkarni,
IT Director,
Cetera Financial Group
CXO INSIGHTS
Ed McLaughlin,
CIO,
Mastercard
CIO INSIGHTS
IN MY OPINION
RETAIL
REVAMPED
WITH A DIGITAL
TOUCH
Mercatus Technologies
Sylvain Perrier,
President and CEO
eCommerce Special

2. | |11 December 2016
retailciooutlook.com
S
ince the dawn of the World Wide Web, the grocery landscape has
been ripe for disruption. Consumers have become increasingly
comfortable using technologies, devices and services that make
everyday tasks—like shopping, cooking and list-making—easier and
more efficient; and the retailers that are aligning themselves with
this seismic shift are thriving, while those who aren’t risk losing
competitive ground.
Headed by a dynamic and articulate retail industry thought
leader, Sylvain Perrier, President and CEO, Mercatus is helping
grocers adopt this change and cater to the ever-evolving needs
of today’s shoppers. With more than a decade of executive-level
experience in retail technology, Perrier is driving the success of many
of North America’s best-known retailers with the company’s easy-
to-use technology. The solutions offered by Mercatus allow retailers
to overcome challenges prevalent in the landscape, from limited
resources and traditionally ‘siloed’ knowledge, to the need for agility
and the current fragmentation of many existing technologies.
COVER
STORY
COVER
STORY
Retail Revamped
With a Digital Touch
Mercatus Technologies
By Syeda Tina Tabin
eCommerce
TOP 10
Solution Providers- 2016
Sylvain Perrier,
President and CEO
| |11 December 2016
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3. | | | |12 13December 2016 December 2016
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Bridging the Gap
Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario,
Mercatus is the brainchild of a group of
passionate innovators who identified
a gap in the retail technology market.
The conception of Mercatus was based
on the observation that shoppers are
switching off to traditional marketing
vehicles, and are instead craving more
digital interactions with their brands.
Since then, the company has been
redefining the digital experience within
the realm of grocery, with a purpose
to empower grocers to create best-in-
breed shopping experiences for their
customers.
Most companies today realize that
embracing advanced technologies
and moving to digital is paramount to
building connections with shoppers
and delivering what they want.
“Personalization, done right, goes a
long way to create consumer affinity,”
Perrier observes. “If you can get the
right product in the hands of the right
consumer at the right time, it goes a
long way for a brand. What we see in
grocery stores today is a real blend of
commerce and consumer experience.”
To achieve this, retailers require an in-
depth knowledge of customer choices,
and the consumer-facing solutions
offered by Mercatus provide just that.
Once a shopper creates an account, the
company starts to register preferences
and other ancillary information that
can then be used to create customized
user experiences. That information is
then synchronized to a retailer’s loyalty
system, which allows them to gain a
clear picture of the consumer they are
interacting with on a one-to-one basis.
This sort of information is extremely
helpful for retailers that normally
wouldn’t have access to the individual
preferences of their shoppers.
Uniting Consumers and
Merchants
“We ensure that what we do on
behalf of retailers is—from a customer
experience perspective—multi-channel,
and very succinctly omni-channel as
well,” expresses Perrier. He believes
that Mercatus stands apart from its
competitors because the company owns
its back-end technology and brings
to the table more than 35 integration
points, which gives it a great deal of
flexibility. “Another way we maintain
competitiveness within the industry is
by making sure that our solution sets are
in line with our client’s requirements.”
At a time when retailers are
constrained in their existing brick and
mortar investments and unable to
stock bulkier items inside their store,
Mercatus offers them ‘Endless Aisle.’
The solution enables grocery retailers to
use in-store kiosks that allow customers
to order products that are no longer
in stock or not sold in the store, and
then have the product shipped to their
homes. Capabilities like these create the
difference between being a traditional
grocery retailer versus more of a big-box
store. Another common challenge that
many retailers face is the
effective management of
labor and order fulfilment,
which may adversely erode
margins, impacting their
return on investment in
eCommerce. Sensing the
need for a system that
would enable retailers to
determine the efficiency of
store employees that are
on-site picking and packing
orders, Mercatus came up
with ‘Capacity Scheduling,’
which allows retailers to
forecast and schedule the
laborers’ workloads.
Perrier credits the
success of Mercatus
to the strong strategic
relationships that the
company has built in the
industry over the years,
which in turn has helped
develop its eCommerce
technology. “We’ve been
able to harness and bring
together a lot of different
third party solutions that
really make up a complete,
all-in-one package for our retailers,
which helps them leverage their
various investments,” observes Perrier.
Mercatus’ technology has been fulfilling
shopper’s needs not just on web, but on
mobile too.
The company also spends a great
deal of its time going out to market
with its solutions and testing various
elements—such as the user interface
(UI)—to ensure both shoppers’ and
retailers’ needs are met. “When it
comes to shoppers, we specifically
target consumers that are
reflective of the personas that
retailers are dealing with on a
daily basis,” explains Perrier. “We
then take that feedback, share it
with our retailers, and readjust
our solutions accordingly.”
The Future of Smart
Technology
With Mercatus’ proprietary
research indicating that 70
percent of all consumers expect
next-day delivery in the world
of grocery eCommerce, the
company is actively working with
transportation management
system providers—as well as
consumer-based technologies
vendors—to be able to fulfil
those needs. Perrier is keeping
a watchful eye on emerging
technology in the eCommerce
space, and believes that digital
assistance is the future of virtual
merchandising. “Having the
ability to say something like,
‘grocery store; milk; eggs,’ to a
digital assistant to automatically
build out your shopping list,
order those items, and pay
for them without ever having to lift a
finger, would be a really interesting
application of this kind of technology.
We may be anywhere from three to
five years away from these types of
solutions, but in order for them to be
successful, I think it’s important for
them to open up their back-ends to
other companies, so that eCommerce
platforms can exploit these solutions
in an easy and efficient fashion,”
expresses Perrier. He concludes by
emphasizing Mercatus’ dedication to
transforming the world of grocery retail
by presenting complete control and
flexibility of the Mercatus platform to
its retailers.
We ensure that what we do on behalf of
retailers is, from a customer experience
perspective, multi-channel, and very
succinctly omni-channel as well
We’ve been able to harness and
bring together a lot of different
third-party solutions that really
make up a complete, all-in-one
package for our retailers