ALCMÉON x ARISTID connect their tech platforms

ALCMÉON x ARISTID join their technologies to give grocery retail an alternative to mailbox catalogue distribution

At a time when digitised promotion is at the heart of retailers' traffic challenges, the connection between these two “Retail Tech” players offers a high-performing solution to broadcast commercial offers at scale on consumers' favourite apps.

This autumn 2022, the supremacy of the printed catalogue distributed in mailboxes is being shaken up. More precisely, the physical distribution of this advertising format — a star of mass retailers, with undeniable competitive results — is being threatened by three circumstances:

• The French government's OUI PUB scheme, born from the climate law, launched as a trial last month in 11 major urban areas. It introduces an “opt-in” through a sticker on the mailbox required to authorise reception of the catalogue and limit waste.
• Worldwide rises in paper prices, threatening the profitability of the format.
• The low appeal of paper mail and mailboxes for younger generations versus the time they spend on new digital platforms.

It is therefore urgent to find alternative solutions to broadcast this still highly effective format, which on its own generates 9% of additional in-store traffic. The economic stake is huge for the activity of the areas concerned.

What better than using consumers' favourite apps to replace the mailbox?

That is the challenge set by the two “Retail Tech” platforms ALCMÉON and ARISTID.

On one side, ARISTID collects all promotional data, organises it and shapes it to make it attractive to consumers. These automated operations make it possible to generate a very large number of offers, adapt them locally, and deliver them in the right format for each medium.

On the other, Alcméon's technology can capture customers at scale through click-to-messaging ads, links or QR codes, and then regularly send them their promotional catalogues through their favourite messaging apps: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct, etc.

ALCMÉON is already fed by ARISTID to broadcast their joint clients' digitised commercial offers at scale on consumers' favourite messaging apps.

What opportunities will this connection unlock in the future?

In the short term, the priority is to shift readers of paper promotion to digital. Thanks to this connection, retailers can immediately broadcast the digital version of their catalogues at scale across messaging apps.

They can invite their customers to this new behaviour for example with QR codes in store, on their print materials, or through links on their website or social networks. This conversion to the “messaging catalogue” can be further accelerated by using the new click-to-messaging ad formats offered by Facebook, Instagram and Google. New features such as “messaging subscription” even make it possible to collect opt-ins so that consumers can be notified as soon as their new catalogues are available.

In September 2022, the average reading time of a grocery retail catalogue sent on Messenger via Alcméon was 3 min 20!

— Source ALCMÉON

The strength of this approach — whose first results are very promising — lies in its fit with the needs of mass retail, which has to keep in touch with a very large number of customers on a very regular basis.

In the future, the connection between these two platforms will unlock many evolutions. Always automated, publications will become more and more creative, personalised, tailored to the visual formats of messaging networks, in video, carousels, instant publications… A new world for promo!

First-mover advantage… When you know the share of activity tied to promotion in food retail (13% of additional store revenue), the competition is fierce to become the brand with the best “digital reach-ability” to broadcast its offers. The story is playing out again, as in the days of the first paper catalogues, the first email blasts, the first SMS campaigns…

Bet on it: a high-quality, unified relationship will be the key to success. The customer who reaches out to a retailer through messaging will be able to manage the entire relationship through a single conversation: customer service, after-sales, store info, exclusives… and of course be regularly invited to discover promotions and exclusive offers!

A word from the founders

Everyone uses a messaging app every day: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct, Apple Messages or Google's Android messages. Today, thanks to our ALCMÉON x ARISTID connection, these apps are already, or will very soon be, usable by major retailers to broadcast all their promotions every week to all their customers. And from there, to test new formats and move towards ever more personalisation.

— Charles DOXUAN, CMO ALCMÉON

There is an urgent need today to rethink commercial communication tools. Data must be at the heart of everything, and technology at the service of retail's creativity!

— Rodolphe BONNASSE, ARISTID CEO Retail Technology

Read Olivier Dauvers' article on this topic: “What if messaging saved the leaflet?”