Dirty Martini Volume 25

The Dirty Details

Grocery commerce leaders are winning by removing uncertainty at each step in the buying journey — from discovery, to checkout, to fulfillment, to service. The laggards expose the shopper to those breaking points in the journey.

Incisiv’s Grocery Intelligence Platform 2026 assessed 200 grocery banners across 8 countries, three regions, and 78 capabilities. Analysts evaluated each banner through its live digital properties, as a shopper would, and scored capabilities across four levels: Basic, Developing, Advanced, and Leading. The benchmark is useful because it measures what shoppers can actually do, not what a roadmap promises. In early 2027, we’ll be adding a 10,000-shopper data layer as well as executive insights from the industry.

Fresh groceries and a smartphone on a dark wooden surface

Here are seven signals that show what leadership looks like, and where grocery is still leaving the buying journey unfinished.

Leaders make the whole journey work

43% of the 200 grocers assessed at Advanced or better across the shopping experience as a whole. This is higher than any of our previous Benchmarks but it still means a majority are still operating below an advanced standard somewhere in the journey. This is not surprising as full buyer journey excellence is almost never found in one solution. To be an overall leader means solid integration has occurred and solid leadership is driving the effort.

What it means for B2B tech marketing: If possible, position around journey orchestration vs. isolated capabilities. The buyer is typically looking for fewer breaks between intent and execution.

Discovery is ahead of the information that makes a purchase trustworthy

Only 13% of grocers show live stock at the shopper’s chosen store, and just 5% provide dynamic, product-level expiry information. A shopper can find the item, but often cannot answer the questions that determine whether the trip is worth making: Is it there? How fresh is it? Can I trust the promise?

What it means for B2B tech marketing: If you sell search, commerce, PIM, inventory, or store technology, lead with confidence at the moment of consideration. Better discovery without current availability and freshness data amplifies disappointment instead of conversion.

The best buying journeys connect inspiration to action

In North America, 54% of grocers connect recipes to the cart. That is a meaningful bridge between content and commerce: the grocer is helping the shopper move from “What should I make?” to “What do I need to buy?” However, Inspiration only compounds when the ingredients are available, substitutions are clear, savings are applied, and fulfillment can keep the promise.

What it means for B2B tech marketing: Sell the connected decision path, not content in isolation. The differentiator is not recipe content. It is the system that turns intent into a reliable basket.

Loyalty still breaks at checkout

Only 14% of grocers apply a clipped coupon in the online cart without requiring a code. In the United States, 43% of supermarkets either do not accept SNAP online or accept it only in-store. Recognized shoppers are still being asked to translate eligibility, offers, and loyalty status into manual checkout behavior.

What it means for B2B tech marketing: Lead with friction removal. If your platform touches loyalty, promotions, payments, or customer data, show how it makes value automatic at checkout. A reward the shopper has to remember to claim is not a seamless loyalty experience.

Leaders give shoppers control before fulfillment is irreversible

Only 25% of grocers let shoppers accept or refuse a substitution before the order leaves. Just 34% let shoppers move a delivery slot online without calling. As we all know, grocery baskets change, inventory moves, and schedules conflict.. Leaders let shoppers approve substitutions or change delivery details before a fulfillment decision is locked in, instead of making the retailer’s constraints the customer’s problem.”

What it means for B2B tech marketing: Position fulfillment software around agency and exception management. “We deliver orders” is table stakes. “We let shoppers resolve uncertainty before it becomes a service call” is a stronger commercial argument.

Fulfillment transparency is still partial

Only 30% of grocers show what the delivery fee includes. And while 31% use dedicated cold-item packaging, only 2% monitor temperature. The gap is between performing a process and proving the process. Retailers may be taking operational steps, but shoppers rarely see enough evidence to evaluate the promise before or after the order.

What it means for B2B tech marketing: Sell observability, not only optimization. Fee transparency, cold-chain monitoring, and proactive status signals turn invisible execution into visible trust.

Service is where the lag becomes impossible to hide

Only 4% of grocers proactively contact shoppers about a failed order before the shopper calls. Just 18% give service teams visibility into loyalty information. The retailer may have the order record, but the operating model still makes the shopper explain the problem again — and makes the service agent work without the context needed to resolve it.

What it means for B2B tech marketing: Lead with proactive resolution and connected context. The service desk should know what was promised, what changed, what the shopper values, and what recovery is appropriate. Otherwise, every failure compounds into a trust deficit.

Buying Journey Maturity Gap

Grocery has built the digital front door faster than it has built the operating system behind it.

Buying Journey Maturity Gap
Stage	Capability	Rate
discovery	live store stock	13%
discovery	dynamic expiry information	5%
basket building	recipe-to-cart, North America	54%
fulfillment	temperature monitoring	2%
service	proactive order resolution	4%

The leaders are the banners that keep the promise intact from the first search to the final resolution. Is that easy? No, not at all - but the stakes are high, so it’s important to get it right!

Straight from the Shaker:

AI and the B2B Marketing CMO - Latest Study

Get practical insights and best practices straight from our industry experts as we shake up and serve up our knowledge to help you improve your go-to-market strategies. We share tips each month to help you stay ahead of the game.

Last month we dug into our AI in B2B Tech Marketing Study. The data is so rich that we will devote more time to it this month. The study examines the approvals and system handoffs that still require people as well as how teams are changing their workflows, who should own the changes and how to assess them.

We’re scheduling 1:1 walkthroughs. If interested, you can book here.

Businesswoman working on a laptop in a dark office

Check out these data points and LET US KNOW if you agree or disagree with any of them.

25%

25% of marketing and GTM leaders attribute at least 10% more completed GTM work to AI without adding headcount. I know that’s a bit of a tongue twister but it is showing that leaders are enhancing productivity with AI. Of course, the question becomes: where is that capacity going?

62%

This is a big one: 62% of teams that considered changing AI providers either rebuilt most of the workflow or abandoned the change. This means the early vendor leaders are creating workflow lock-in. B2B marketers should evaluate portability, documentation, and exit plans before adding another tool.

59%

59% say the responsibilities assigned to AI agents are still isolated experiments.

We know experiments are happening (this is true for retailers too) but we still need to get to the point where repeatable, owned workflows can connect marketing, sales, operations, and systems.

66%

In cases where both a CMO and a functional executive responded (no:196), a whopping 66% disagreed about the readiness/ability of the organization to equip approved AI to complete useful marketing work. That means alignment exists in only about one-third of matched companies. It is a leadership and governance issue, not simply a training issue.

25%

In cases where both a CMO and a functional executive responded (no:196), only 25% have functional marketing executives rating AI readiness higher than the CMO.

Functional teams may be further along than the executive narrative suggests, but lack the authority or operating model to scale what they have already built.

AI is creating capacity, but most B2B marketing organizations have not redesigned the work around it to truly maximize value. The next competitive advantage will come from workflow ownership, portability, and executive-functional alignment vs. piloting another AI tool.

Dive deeper into our cross-industry research and content.

Take a look at some of our latest insights:

A good perspective on where B2B tech is going: B2B Tech: Turning Retail Capability Gaps Into Better Go-To-Market Decisions.

Enterprise technology decisions are made by a buying committee that marketing rarely sees. Finance, IT, security and the business line each evaluate the solution on their own terms. In our latest Market Snapshot, The Anonymous Committee: How Enterprise Tech Decisions Get Made Before Sales Engages, we outline four imperatives for building an account intelligence layer that makes the buying group visible.

As AI strategies continue to evolve, we highlight the need for companies to train purpose-built agents on their own rules so that they can stay recognizable at AI scale. Brand-safe content at AI scale needs agents, not general-purpose copilots.

Second Round - Upcoming Events and Partnership Opportunities

Incisiv Partnership with Omni-talk Retail

Omni Talk and Incisiv Partner to Enable NRF 2027 Big Show Sponsors to Maximize Their Show Value
Cutting through the clutter and noise of NRF is becoming a bigger challenge. Omni-Talk and Incisiv have created a three-phase campaign that gives sponsors and exhibitors thought leadership and exposure before, during, and after retail's biggest week, including a feature spot on a Times Square billboard.
Full details on the partnership and programs can be found HERE.

New York Community Dinner Series

Our next Dinner is November 5th in conjunction with Manhattan, and we are focusing the conversation on AI’s Impact Across the Enterprise. We have a GREAT group of retailers and brands registered and are looking forward to the evening.

New York Community Dinner Series 2027. We are building our calendar for our quarterly dinner series in 2027. If you'd like to discuss a date or theme that fits your schedule, now is the time to reach out! Email Mara Dosso (mara.dosso@incisiv.com) and we’ll schedule a call.

Believe it or not, NRF 2027 is coming! Our biggest Speakeasy of the year, The Speakeasy @ NRF, will take place Saturday, January 9th at Zuma. Over 50 retailers will join to kick off the 2027 NRF Big Show.

This event is SOLD OUT.

The Store Experience Tour is back, and Incisiv and AWS will be guiding NRF attendees to some of the world’s most innovative retailers to see how they are using technology to win competitive advantage.

Incisiv at Shoptalk Luxe 2027

We're excited to be heading back to Shoptalk Luxe in Abu Dhabi this February!

Our Chief Strategy Officer, Giri, will be moderating a session on “Winning Visibility in the Age of AI Discovery” on February 3. The discussion will explore how luxury and premium brands can stay visible, relevant, and influential as AI-powered platforms reshape how consumers discover brands.

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