Stop & Shop Tailors Ads to Consumers as they Shop

Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. is testing a mix of in-store TV and radio with on-cart devices that tailor ads to shoppers while they browse the aisles.

The media package is a combination of InStore Broadcasting Network’s radio and TV, bundled with Cuesol’s “Shopping Buddy” on-cart tool that lets shoppers scan items they put in their carts. The package is being tested in a handful of stores.

Stop & Shop has had both elements in store, but this is the first time they are using the media and the Shopping Buddy together.

Stop & Shop worked with Cuesol for four years to develop Shopping Buddy, now in use in the chain’s 550 stores. A new version rolls out this year, in tandem with InStore Broadcasting’s TV and radio system in Stop & Shop stores, according to InStore Broadcasting.

For packaged goods marketers, it’s a new advertising venue within reach of their products on-shelf. For shoppers, it’s added convenience, according to Stephen Vowles, Stop & Shop’s senior vice president of marketing.

“We have invested deeply in understanding our customer’s unique needs and we believe with an integrated in-store system will allow us to better communicate with our shoppers while we provide them improved convenience and other shopping benefits,” Vowles said in a statement.

There is no timetable for rolling out the system into all of Stop & Shop’s stores—or, for that matter, outside the chain: InStore Broadcasting’s network covers 17,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada.

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