![\"Retail](\"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RETAIL-ONLINE-TRAINING-728-X-90.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For years, Hy-Vee has etched out territory for itself as a leading retail innovator. By employing an experimental and diverse approach to \u2018finding out what works,\u2019 Hy-Vee has secured for itself multiple innovation awards, demonstrating leadership within the broader industry effort to digitize operations and engage the \u2018new customer\u2019 within an omnichannel framework.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s in the process of Hy-Vee\u2019s experimentations in customer engagement and effective store digitization that they launched RedMedia, a \u2018tool\u2019 with which brands can \u201caccess smart tools and customized solutions to directly target millions of customers\u201d within an omnichannel framework.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Putting it differently, by recognizing a need for the brands working with Hy-Vee to better understand and engage with Hy-Vee customers, RedMedia was born, a proactive effort to impact shoppers via data-driven, personalized experiences in partnership with a range of leading third-party providers and consultants within the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a sitdown talk between RETHINK Retail and Jason Farver, Executive Vice President, Chief Supply Chain Officer, and now President of RedMedia for Hy-Vee, he notes that the new retail media initiative was launched \u2018in earnest\u2019 within the last year, with a full-time team dedicated to development and support while Hy-Vee navigates its way through the world of modern retail media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hearing a tremendous amount about retail media networks, and it\u2019s been a huge trend that\u2019s been going on [in the industry],\u201d notes Farver.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the brands are excited about the fact that we\u2019ve got a massive reach, a massive audience inside our eight states, but we\u2019re also small enough that they can test and learn with us. So maybe not as high of a hurdle rate to get in and start to test and learn with our retail media network. And I think that\u2019s a big advantage for us,\u201d he continues, further noting that the company\u2019s \u2018agility\u2019 is a key component in its innovation success.<\/p>\n
The \u2018agility\u2019 Farver describes would be that much harder to achieve with a national chain in all 50 states, where testing innovation efforts not only becomes a much larger project but one with far more variables as well.<\/p>\n
Hy-Vee fits into broader industry imperatives to keep digitization efforts personalized, both in the sense that customer personalization is key and in localizing appropriately at the regional level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He further describes RedMedia as the result of close brand partnerships that seek to \u201creimagine your traditional supplier-partner agreement\u201d as a kind of joint business planning that brings together merchandising and media conversations, an aspect of RedMedia\u2019s approach that informs its omnichannel orientation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Going into 2024, retail managers\u2019 tech strategy should align with some of the more recent thinking on what exactly an omnichannel, digitally transformed retail company actually<\/em> looks like: a unification of differing silos into a coherent engagement strategy where all relevant data can more seamlessly talk to and inform each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n Initiatives like RedMedia provide an example into one of the many paths modern retailers can seek to do just that.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n