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Tops Markets bulks up digital media muscle

Regional grocer taps Inmar Intelligence to help drive supplier advertising business

Russell Redman

April 6, 2021

3 Min Read
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Tops Markets is using Inmar's platform to offer suppliers on-site and off-site targeted media via the new Tops Shopper Link Digital Media Network.Tops Markets

Tops Friendly Markets aims to grow advertising and media opportunities for vendor partners through expanded use of the Inmar Intelligence Retail Cloud digital solutions suite.

Plans call for Williamsville, N.Y.-based Tops to use the platform to offer suppliers targetable and attributable on-site and off-site media via the new Tops Shopper Link Digital Media Network, Inmar said Tuesday. Through the network, suppliers will be able to access ad placements on TopsMarkets.com, shopper-targeted off-site ad placements across programmatic media and paid social, and real-time sales reporting at the UPC level.

“We are excited to introduce Tops Shopper Link, in partnership with Inmar Intelligence, to connect the great brands and services we offer in our 162 Tops stores and on TopsMarkets.com, with our 2 million qualified shoppers at the moment they are interacting online,” Diane Colgan, senior vice president at Tops Friendly Markets, said in a statement.

Tops, which in February announced a deal to merge with fellow regional grocer Price Chopper/Market 32, operates supermarkets in New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Inmar already partnered with Tops on shopper incentives and loyalty by integrating digital promotions into supplier campaigns. The broader use of Retail Cloud gives Tops more access to Inmar’s sales and service organization and its roster of media and marketing capabilities, including retail media networks to run an advertising business, owned and operated media integrating ads into the e-commerce experience, and in-store and on-site media to drive bigger shopping baskets and raise customer engagement.

Related:Southeastern Grocers cranks up digital coupons and offers

“This digital media network will help these brands amplify and extend their marketing strategies with us in an efficient way, and while building to mutual sales benefits,” according to Colgan.

Inmar’s Retail Cloud is powered by ShopperSync, a data intelligence platform that allows retailers to leverage their first-party, anonymized transactional data across media and promotions channels in their network, as well as manage permissions and governance rights. By using Retail Cloud, chains like Tops can offer and execute integrated programs across incentives and media, drive shopper and supplier engagement and sales, and spur their digital transformation, Inmar said.

Retail professionals have exhibited rising interest — and stepped up their investment in — media networks. A recent Inmar survey found that the top motivator for implementing a retail media network is to drive sales (cited by 58% of respondents) and develop new revenue streams (36%). And retailers already running media networks are now looking to add new capabilities to optimize reach and engagement with customers in new ways. 

Related:Ahold Delhaize USA looks to amplify digital price promos

“We are delighted that Tops Markets has chosen Inmar’s Retail Cloud to build out their Shopper Link Digital Media Network,” stated Spencer Baird, executive vice president at Inmar and president of its MarTech division. “It is our goal to not only enable scalable retail media solutions for organizations like Tops, but to create full retail marketing platforms that seamlessly integrate marketing and merchandising activities, deliver a better experience for the shopper and drive results.”

Read more about:

Tops Friendly Markets

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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