When Amazon entered the grocery business with the acquisition of Whole Foods this year, it was thought to be a supermarket killer. The grocery business was already facing competition from general retailers like Walmart that operate on larger scales and offer lower prices, and invading European grocers like Aldi and Lidl, before the mammoth conglomerate took an interest.
Against those odds, Kroger, a supermarket chain in the Midwestern and Southern US, flourished last quarter and reported sales and earnings that beat analyst forecasts. The company is hoping it can defy expectations again as it takes on Amazon in another domain: advertising.
The grocery company is going to use the data from the more than 60 million US households it serves to sell ads on Kroger properties and around the web itself, Digiday reported. It also plans to launch a programmatic platform—software that advertisers will be able to use to place ads on Kroger.com—next year.
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