Platform release notes

We know how time consuming product catalog management can be. Constantly changing product names, descriptions, and images can be hard to keep up for merchandisers and brand marketers. At the same time, it’s important that product description pages (PDPs) are updated regularly to include relevant keywords, latest brand content, and updated product images. Better content translates to larger baskets, fewer returns and a far better customer experience.

An estimated $1 billion dollars are spent on traditional sampling methods by CPG brands every year with the most common sampling campaigns being in-store sampling and direct-to-consumer (D2C) campaigns. Despite playing an important role for CPG activation of product sampling, grocery retailers are often left out of the value chain.

Grocery leaders know how important personalization and being rewarded for their loyalty means to customer retention. A McKinsey study found that 80% of American consumers want personalized interactions in a retail environment, and personalization at scale can provide a 1-2% sales lift for grocery retailers. Furthermore, successful personalization programs can also reduce marketing and sales costs by around 10-20%.

At Mercatus, we know that every “bit” (no pun intended) of a customer shopping journey is important. Your customers are busy and anything that introduces friction into their shopping experience can impact cart building and conversions. Since our last set of web enhancements in Fall ‘22, we’ve made even more improvements to our front-end experience. This update brings together UX and UI changes based on user testing and industry-leading eCommerce practice implemented by our Product team.

When it comes to achieving omnichannel profitability, choosing the right fulfillment partner is a critical decision. At Mercatus, we believe retailers deserve choice and flexibility to complement their eCommerce strategy. In December, we announced DoorDash Drive, an end-to-end fulfillment option where DoorDash shoppers (i.e. Dashers) pick, pack, and deliver your orders. Our expanded integration – DoorDash Last Mile – will allow retailers to have Dashers focus exclusively on order deliveries.

Last month we announced a major upgrade to our mission to advance customer convenience with Mercatus Mobile. The new native mobile app built on React Native offers a modern, intuitive shopping experience to help retailers drive cart conversions, order frequency, and retention. But “convenience” doesn’t just have to be for your customers. Your marketing and merchandising teams deserve a more convenient way to manage your mobile eCommerce strategy. That’s why we’ve introduced an all-new mobile Content Management System (CMS) to provide more configurability and flexibility.

As a regional grocer, your existing mobile app may not be meeting your modern customer’s expectations. A mobile app that doesn’t deliver customer convenience can lead to lower customer satisfaction, retention and lifetime value.

Hear ye, hear ye! The Mercatus Platform now integrates directly with DoorDash Drive. The new integration with DoorDash Drive expands the Mercatus ecosystem of white-label fulfillment providers, offering even more flexibility and choice to grocery retailers as they execute on their omnichannel strategies.

We all know how important customer convenience is in grocery eCommerce. Your customers are busy and anything that introduces friction into their shopping experience might be one less item – or worse – one less checkout with your brand. If you’re looking for long-term customer satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value, you need a digital experience that evolves with changing shopper behaviors.

If you’ve downloaded an app, it’s likely that you took a look at the reviews before you decided to download it. The higher the rating – the more likely you are to download it. In fact, insights from the 2022 Mobile Customer Engagement Benchmark Report from shows that an increase in a single star from 3 to 4 stars can lead to an 89% increase in app downloads.

Customers love having flexibility. In fact, our research shows that “73% of customers prefer self-service for order cancellation or modification vs. talking to customer service.” It’s why we’re excited to announce item alterations for pickup orders. With this update, customers can now make changes to their order items (e.g. add/remove products, update item quantities, picking instructions, or substitution preferences) up to a customizable number of hours before their pickup time.