News & Events

Bill Bishop talked with Audie Cornish about Amazon's decision to expand grocery service beyond a  Seattle testing ground on All Things Considered. Here's a link to the audio.

"Amazon has been testing this for years and now it's time for them to harvest what they've learned by expanding outside Seattle," said Bishop, in this The Globe and Mail article. "The fear is that grocery is a loss leader and Amazon will make a profit on sales of other products ordered online at the same time. That's an awesomely scary prospect for the grocery business."

In this Supermarket News article about how retailers’ marketing and IT departments are coming together to take advantage of digital marketing opportunities, Bill Bishop explains that "Marketers’ interest in big data — and the insights it provides about consumers — stems from a need to find more revenue. We know from loyalty work that one of the easiest ways to generate more revenue is to sell more to your own customers,” he said. To that end, the personalization resulting from big data “increases relevance, which breaks through the clutter and should result in more buying.”

Check out the highlights from our recent big data industry survey published in this Supermarket News DATAPoints. 

In this Perishable Buyer article BMC Chief Architect Bill Bishop explains that while it's true that shopping for nonperishable can be done quite easily online, perishables aren't immune to this inevitable shopping shift.  He explains the two shifts that are categorically important to perishables and provides guidance on what retailers and suppliers can do to drive growth.

In a recent Daily Herald article that highlights how shopper behavior is changing the competitive landscape for food retailing, Anna Marie Kukec quotes BMC Chief Architect Bill Bishop: "But there are also exciting growth opportunities for any food retailer who can provide a new and different shopping experience. The reason some stores like Meijer and Mariano's continue to expand is because they offer a value to shoppers that causes customers to flock to their stores."

This article in The Packer by Bill Bishop and Kerry Tucker shows how new technology and the turmoil in the retail marketplace are opening opportunities for produce (from producers to retailers) and how they are changing where, why, and how people buy food. 

“The risk of breaches only increases as more personal digital devices are introduced into the workplace,” said Bill Bishop, Chief Architect of Brick Meets Click in this Supermarket News article. “It’s hard to know how well prepared retailers are for the inevitable breaches, but my guess is that the majority are focusing their energy right now in other areas, which could lead to greater problems down the road.”

An infographic called Taming the Beast, created by Baynote and featured on Mashable Business, combines lots of Brick Meets Click research and thinking on big data with some from McKinsey and Time.

Read Bill Bishop's response to the Supermarket News 2012 Analysts Roundtable commentary that the retail grocery “pie is shrinking" in this Supermarket News Industry Voices article.

This Progressive Grocer article explores the frontiers health and food, especially via food retailers and their pharmacies, and reinforces that supermarkets must prepare to take full advantage of growth opportunites related to the whole health concept. The article features quotes from both Bill Bishop, Chief Architect of Brick Meets Click, and Ray Stone RPH, a Brick Meets Click Black Belt.

Bill Bishop identifies the lessons that are emerging from retail’s mashup of digital and traditional shopping in “Mixed Results,” a white paper that appears in the Sept/Oct issue of The Hub Magazine. "We’ve been dealing with ecommerce for almost a decade now,” says Bishop, “It’s been a messy and fascinating time, but some solid principles are beginning to emerge for operating in the new landscape.”

Bill Bishop says, “By offering consumers more information about their food and by highlighting usage ideas, the concepts provide retailers with differentiating options to help grow overall dairy sales, in this recent highlight from perishablenews.com

Bill Bishop offers several thoughts on personalization and the upcoming expansion of Safeway's Just for You program in this Supermarket News article.

Read about BMC's 2012 Connecting with the Modern Grocery Shopper report as featured at the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch online.

A new study by NACS CCRRC was recently written up in Crains Chicago Business. The study finds that upscale transformation will be critical to attracting shoppers into Convenience retails store.  Bill Bishop says "Price and value are still paramount, but our theme is really how to broaden the appeal of the average convenience store." 

Experts expect more supermarket mergers and acquisitions this year, and retailers are assessing how this will impact their real estate strategies. This upcoming Supermarket News webinar, features:

• A highly respected financial analyst assessing the outlook for consolidation for both traditional and alternate format retailers.
• An expert panel discussing real estate implications, leading to takeaways about the companies and formats that will be most affected, smart real estate strategies, the need for speed, and how real estate strategy can foster overall company growth and competitive advantage.  Panelists include: Deborah Weinswig – Citibank; Andrew Couch – DJM Realty; and Bill Bishop – Brick Meets Click

During this free webcast, sponsored by IBM an all-star panel of experts – including Brick Meets Click chief architect Bill Bishop, Raley’s Family of Fine Foods’ dir. of CRM analytics Tom Hutchison, Del Monte VP of marketing and creative service Mac Tillman, and IBM associate partner, business analytics, global business services John Hearn -- will explore the various ways in which consumers digitally engage with brands and retailers, and how to put together the best cross-platform digital strategies the drive the largest profits. Sign up today

Bill Bishop is presenting at the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association Convention in Nashville, TN.  Both Bishop and Curt Cullison, of Alliance Harsha Adverting, are the featured speakers in the Reaching Shoppers Via Digital Marketing Tools educational session.

Bill Bishop participated in the Consumer Goods Forum Roundtable of the Americas (ROTA), a share group for top-level retail executives from the US, Canada, and South America held in Las Vegas, NV on May 30 & 31, 2013.

Bill Bishop is visiting the marketing class of Bobby Caulder, Kellstadt Professor of Marketing and Director of the MMM Program at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.  As part of our mission to foster thought-leading discussion about the future of shopping and retail, we occasionally present to classes at certified colleges and universities.  If interested in having Bill speak at your institution, please contact us.  

Bill Bishop moderated at this Summit, an exclusive senior-level gathering of the grocery industry’s most influential manufacturers and retailers to discuss strategies and best practices in leveraging digital tools – such as social media, mobile platforms, multimedia, and e-marketing solutions – to engage shoppers in an increasingly connected world.

Most retailers understand the economic and strategic value of transitioning to digital marketing tools, but the way forward is not clear. Recent BMC research provides a more complete picture of how today’s shoppers find and use information before, during and after the grocery shopping trip. Check out the Reaching your customers with digital communications presentation here.

Bill Bishop and David Bishop attended an industrywide forum about the Future of Dairy to be held in Rosemont, IL, 11/7 – 11/8. They will  participate in a breakout session that focuses on steps the dairy industry can take to respond successfully to changes in 21st century retailing.

This workshop, moderated by Bill Bishop, presented key take aways from the NACS/CCRRC C-Growth Study and provides real-life examples of what one retailer is doing with these findings to drive retail growth for their business.

Both Bill Bishop and David Bishop attended this leadership forum focused the one of the great challenges of the future - providing nutritious, affordable food to a global population expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050 - while using fewer resources.

Steve Bishop presented "Finding Competitive Advantage in 21st Century Food Retailing" April 30, 2012, at the Emerging Marketing Technology Summit, Orlando, FL.

Bill Bishop participated in a panel discussion at the UBS Global Consumer Conference.  The conference provided investors with a comprehensive perspective across the global consumer landscape as the first half of the year unfolds and featured management presentations from leading consumer and retail companies from North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

In addition, attendees had the opportunity to interact with leading executives and discuss industry, economic, and regulatory themes that will continue to challenge and redefine the industry and its prominent players.