NGA, BRdata Partnership Brings Cloud-Based Data Solution for Independent Grocers

The National Grocers Association (NGA) and retail software solutions provider BRdata are teaming up to help independent community grocers have even more capabilities and information at their fingertips with an independent-centric cloud-based program.

NGA Independent Insights powered by BRdata is housed together on one cloud-based, integrated platform where independent grocers will be able to leverage data analytics to stay abreast of key market trends and drive sales as they continue to compete with supply chain issues and mega retailers. 

NGA said in a statement that the partnership allows grocers access to all the tools they need to run their stores efficiently and effectively and better negotiate with their CPG partners. 

“NGA Independent Insights powered by BRdata will provide our members with aggregated analytics to better negotiate with their CPG partners, which will in turn drive more promotions to their stores and discounts to shoppers, making independent community grocers competitive,” said Greg Ferrara, NGA president and CEO. “This solution makes reams of important marketplace data digestible and easily accessible to grocery operators of any size. It’s yet another service that NGA is proud to offer, to enhance the operations of our members.”

NGA Independent Insights will allow users to drill down to see the top trends in their region and state, with regional analytics based on Shelby Report regions. The solutions will also allow users to compare trends amongst stores of similar sizes and in similar areas as well as predict categories that will be trending soon along with categories that are underperforming.  

The solution can assist vendors in helping grocers to merchandise and provide volume-based deals by following data focused exclusively on independents rather than being amalgamated with all grocers and NGA statement said adding that this helps vendors see the impact of promotions and item lift among independent partners.

NGA said setup is quick and easy and that NGA Independent Insights works with almost all POS platforms. “Installation can be done on any store server that can easily access daily transaction logs from the POS,” said John Abbene, president of BRdata, in a statement. “The secure cloud-based solution can be run anywhere, with analytics accessible on any modern browser, Android or iOS device.”

Users of the solution own their own data. “BRdata is providing analytics aggregated from independent grocers while NGA acts as a partner,” Abbene explained. “The platform runs on Microsoft Azure, an industry-leading secure cloud provider to keep data protected at rest and in transit.”