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Tag: Rodney McMullen

  • Kroger CEO: Customers That Engage Digitally Spend Twice As Much

    Kroger CEO: Customers That Engage Digitally Spend Twice As Much

    “Customers that engage with us from a digital standpoint also continue to enjoy coming into the store,” says Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen. “They also spend about twice as much with us. When you look at those things together I really feel optimistic about the future. We’re continuing to make progress on the things that matter on a seamless experience… digital, fresh, and friendly.”

    Rodney McMullen, CEO of Kroger, says that customers who engage digitally come in more often and spend twice as much on average as non-digital customers:

    Seamless Experience of Digital, Fresh, and Friendly

    Every day our associates are taking care of our customers. We’re continuing to make progress on the things that matter on a seamless experience… digital, fresh, and friendly. When you look at the things behind the numbers continuing strong trends. If you look at the things that we’re doing it sets us up well for the fourth quarter and sets us to continue to gain share in 2021 as well.

    One of the things that our customers are telling us is they’ve learned how to cook, they enjoy cooking, and they enjoy the time together as a family. Also, I think the economy continually will continue to be a little bit soft which will cause people to eat at home more as well. Both of those things will continue to provide support (for increased sales).

    Customers That Engage Digitally Spend Twice As Much

    Obviously, we’re anxious for the vaccine to get here and to get widespread use of it just like everyone else is. We were making great progress in gaining share even before COVID 19 started and we expect once things get back to normal we’ll be able to continue to gain share as well. We can’t wait until a vaccine gets out there and it gets widespread usage.

    I really believe our teams will continue to take care of our customers and the seamless experience will tie it all together. What we find are customers that engage with us from a digital standpoint also continue to enjoy coming into the store. They also spend about twice as much with us. When you look at those things together I really feel optimistic about the future.

    Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen: Customers That Engage Digitally Spend Twice As Much
  • Kroger CEO: Digital Business Is Up 127 Percent

    Kroger CEO: Digital Business Is Up 127 Percent

    “Our digital business is up 127 percent,” says Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen. “When you look at what our customers tell us and one of the reasons why our digital business is so strong is things that are personalized. We continue to look at what the customer wants and needs and then how do we serve those. What we find are our store teams, our pickup associates, and delivery is very important.”

    “Customers are at the center of everything we do and, as a result, we are growing market share,” noted McMullen in their earnings release. “Kroger’s strong digital business is a key contributor to this growth, as the investments made to expand our digital ecosystem are resonating with customers. Our results continue to show that Kroger is a trusted brand and our customers choose to shop with us because they value the product quality and freshness, convenience, and digital offerings that we provide.”

    Rodney McMullen, CEO of Kroger, discusses how their digital business has been particularly key to powering their massive growth amid the COVID pandemic:

    Digital Business Is Up 127 Percent

    Customers are continuing to shop in our stores. When they shop in our stores, the count is down but the amount they spend per visit is up significantly. Also, our digital business is up 127 percent. Customers continue to engage in that. What we’re finding is that in markets where COVID is having a lower incident rate or where it is having a higher incident rate, it really doesn’t have that much of a difference. The thing that’s exciting is that people are finding they enjoy cooking and they enjoy eating as a family. It’s really all those things together that gave us the confidence to go out with the (earnings) guidance that we did.

    We’re really looking at this for the long term, what’s right for the customer today and what’s right for the customer two or three years out. The increased volume has allowed us to leverage some costs. What we’re doing is taking some of that and sharing it with the customer by waiving our pickup fee. Also, we’ve continued to do promotions throughout the pandemic and we continue to share some of that with the customer. We really do fundamentally just believe the customers will reward us once we get out of the pandemic as well. It’s just the right thing to do and it’s the right thing to do to help a customer’s budget go a little further.

    Digital Business Is Strong Because Of Personalization

    For us, it’s the whole total experience. When you look at what our customers tell us and one of the reasons why our digital business is so strong is things that are personalized. We also do incredibly well on fresh. Customers tell us and they expect that our fresh is really good and good relative to our competition. It’s really all of those things together. We’ve had a membership program for a long time and you didn’t have to pay for it. It’s fuel rewards and we do loyal customer mailings and all those things.

    We continue to look at what the customer wants and needs and then how do we serve those. What we find are our store teams, our pickup associates, and delivery is very important. We are making sure we have that total balance of the experience both from a people standpoint, a price standpoint promotion, and then kind of sealing the deal with fresh products as well.

    Digital Business Is Up 127 Percent Says Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen
  • Kroger CEO: How We Compete for Software Engineers with Facebook

    Kroger CEO: How We Compete for Software Engineers with Facebook

    Kroger and all retailers are fast becoming tech companies and thus have the difficult task of competing with companies like Facebook for top tech talent. According to Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, one of their secrets to recruiting software engineers is the promise of more responsibility quicker than anywhere else.

    Rodney McMullen, Kroger Chairman and CEO, reveals how Kroger competes with Facebook and the tech world for software engineers at NRF 2019, Retails Big Show:

    How Kroger Competes for Tech Talent

    In terms of the number of employees, I think you will have the same number but the skillsets will be a lot different. If you look at digital, for example, we have 500 people in our digital team. Within 2-3 years we will have a thousand. With software engineers, it is a completely different type of talent. Yes, we compete with (Facebook). It’s kind of fascinating.

    It’s important for people to eat. It’s important for people to eat things they like. If you come to Kroger you are able to help people get exactly what they want when they want it. You get immediate feedback on something that is incredibly important. If the customer likes it you see it immediately. If they don’t like it you see it immediately. So you get great feedback.

    More Responsibility Quicker Than Anywhere Else

    I always tell people when we are recruiting them, I guarantee you that you will have more responsibility quicker than anywhere else. We have 25-year-old and 30-year-old people running $100 million and $200 million businesses.

    On a couple of tests that we have going on right now, we have two interns that actually did the software work to get it in place. When their internship finished they went back to college and kept working with us to finish the project they worked on. It’s one of those things that you get a tremendous amount of responsibility incredibly fast.

    The Future of Retail

    I think the store will be multi-purpose. I think about one of our bigger stores. It wouldn’t surprise me if you had a small warehouse in the back of that store. You will use the same footprint, but half of it may be a physical store that is an experience space, half of it will be more warehouse efficiency space.