Today in food commerce, delivery services launch new private label lines, while past trends give restaurants insight into consumers’ mid-inflation dining habits. Plus, Smoothie King COO Dan Harmon discusses how the brand reduces digital friction to drive loyalty.

Smoothie King’s Strategy to Win Back Customers From Aggregators

In this month’s Feature Story, Dan Harmon, president and chief operating officer at Smoothie King, discusses the ins and outs of integrating digital experiences and adopting food delivery.

Delivery Platform GoPuff Launches Private Label

Grocery delivery platform Gopuff has unveiled “Basically,” its first private label, according to a Tuesday (Jan. 18) press release. The “Basically” line will start with bottled water before moving onto essentials, such as cleaning products, batteries, paper products, cutlery and food storage, the release stated.

Ultrafast Grocer Buyk Launches Private Label

Grocery service Buyk has launched a line of “high-quality, affordable private label products,” something the company says is a first in the world of ultrafast grocery delivery. Announced Tuesday (Jan. 18), this line of goods includes coffee, pastries, artisan bread, as well as snacks such as candy, chocolates and ice cream.

Korean eGrocer Kurly Expects $2.5B in GMV

As it prepares to go public, the South Korean eGrocer Kurly expects to reach $2.5 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) after crossing the $1.6 billion (or 2 trillion won) threshold last year. As Pulse reported Tuesday (Jan. 18), multiple retail industry sources say Kurly founder and CEO Kim Seul-ah set that target in a meeting with employees last week.

To Win Grocery Shoppers’ Loyalty Today, Brands Must Think Brick-and-Mortar, Data Shows

While grocers’ digital strategies are key to their long-term futures, securing the majority of consumers’ loyalty in the here and now means maintaining a top-tier in-store experience, suggests research from a new PYMNTS study, Decoding Customer Affinity: The Customer Loyalty to Merchants Survey 2022, created in collaboration with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions.

Data From Decades Past Show That Restaurants Need Not Worry About Inflation

With rapid inflation, many consumers are growing acutely aware of rising costs. While it is easy to imagine that newfound price concerns could spell trouble for restaurants, which tend to offer a costlier food option than, say, cooking at home, the numbers have a different story to tell. It seems that United States consumers do not actually pull back their restaurant spending at times when inflation is on the rise.