The Independent Grocers Alliance aims to make it easier and cheaper for independents to serve up in-store promotions.
The network of independent supermarkets announced Monday that it acquired Inmar’s Scanner Applications, a media company that sets up scanned-based retail promotions, adjudicates claims, provides analytics and offers fraud control. IGA said that scan-based offers do not compete with trade funds and instead let brands boost sales across retailers of all sizes by giving discounts only to shoppers who bought during the promotional period.
IGA has worked with Scanner Applications since launching its Retail Media Network roughly eight years ago.
Scanner Applications will be known as ScanApps going forward, and its workers will join the IGA portfolio of companies. IGA said it does not expect operational changes to the media company, though brands and retailers will likely see new products soon.
“Independent chains like IGA … have real power in their ‘hyper-local’ focus, but our individuality often makes it hard for brands to reach our shoppers,” IGA CEO John Ross said in the emailed announcement.
Ross noted that the complexity of loading promotions and serving advertisements efficiently across thousands of different stores causes independent shoppers to miss out on savings that shoppers at larger retailers can access.
Because shoppers at independent grocers are more brand loyal and more likely to respond to promotions, brands that work with ScanApps will likely have a high ROI, Ross said. With ScanApps, a brand can pick its target audience and run an offer right on the grocery store shelf “without worrying about technology, platforms, or point-of-sale systems,” Ross said.
IGA said it will start integrating more ScanApps offers into the existing IGA digital ad.
IGA, the world's largest voluntary supermarket network, includes more than 6,300 stores globally, with 2,100 in the U.S.
IGA noted that the ScanApps purchase is the latest in a string of acquisitions meant to boost membership in the supermarket network, following the 2020 purchase of ADvay Media Group to make advertising and marketing solutions more affordable and the 2023 acquisition of marketing consultancy firm What Brands Want, which focuses on shopper marketing and brand strategy.
