Latin American consumers and grocery retail

Latin American consumers and grocery retail

In this episode of RETALES, we discuss grocery retail and the Latin American market. Our guest is Hermann Petzold-Rodriguez, an industry insider who has worked for big retail brands, including Walmart, the world’s largest company by revenue, as Senior Manager in Central America.

First, we talked about Walmart’s hard discount and hypermarket model and its strategy in Central America. Our guest highlighted that the secret of the US supermarket chain is that it always “puts the consumer first” and described his 7 years at the company as a phd in the industry.

Next, we focused on Latin American supermarket retail consumers and what their priorities are. Hermann explains that there are differences in consumption patterns between countries and seasons. For example, “consumption can change with the cold and with the heat”.

Even so, our interviewee emphasizes that there is one supermarket model that is more popular in the area than others. This is the “hard discount market”, such as D1 or Exito in Colombia, where basic goods are offered at very affordable prices. This is due to the fact that the purchase of the family basket usually prevails over individual consumption. 

We have also talked about customer-centric retail, which Hermann has defined as “offering the customer what they need when they need it”. In this regard, he highlighted in-store service as one of the key factors in ensuring this model.

That is why, he says, “Walmart and Mercadona call the employee collaborator,” because it is an essential part of customer-centric grocery retail. Taking care of the employee is one part, but there is another equally important part: technology.

In this sense, “the most effective technology is the one that no one sees,” says our guest. He also points out that “e-commerce and omnichannel bring complexity to the store”, which is why tech solutions that optimize the in-store teams’ efficiency are so important. 

Finally, we talked about the store of the future where, according to our guest, “physical proximity will be the key”, as well as the personalization of the experience and “where you use technology to serve the consumer”.

Listen to the entire conversation to discover more views on grocery retail from  Hermann Petzold-Rodriguez. And don’t forget to subscribe and share this episode of RETALES, from retailers to retailers.