Reflections from David Buckingham, CEO, Ecrebo
Grocery Tech 2026 in Charlotte, hosted by Progressive Grocer, highlighted an industry moving rapidly from digital experimentation to large-scale execution. Across the event, conversations focused on how grocery retailers are using AI, personalization, and connected commerce to drive measurable business outcomes, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen customer engagement.
One of the biggest themes throughout the show was the accelerated adoption of AI at scale. Retailers are now deploying AI across merchandising, pricing, forecasting, labor optimization, ecommerce search, and customer engagement, shifting from isolated pilots to enterprise-wide strategies designed to deliver real commercial impact.
Retail media also emerged as a major focus, with grocers increasingly viewing it as a core profit engine powered by first-party customer data, personalization, and closed-loop measurement. At the same time, hyper-personalization is quickly becoming the industry standard, as retailers invest in more relevant, real-time customer experiences across both digital and physical channels.
Another key takeaway was the repositioning of the physical store as a strategic asset within a broader connected commerce ecosystem. Rather than treating digital and in-store experiences separately, retailers are increasingly focused on creating seamless customer journeys that connect ecommerce, loyalty, mobile engagement, retail media, and in-store experiences into a single, integrated strategy.
For Ecrebo, many of these conversations strongly aligned with our mission to help grocers strengthen loyalty, deepen customer engagement, and drive sustainable revenue growth through smarter, more personalized retail experiences.
Grocery Tech 2026 made one thing clear: the future of grocery retail will be driven by retailers who can successfully combine AI, data, personalization, and connected commerce to create measurable value for both customers and the business.