Inabuggy partners with Conagra as part of emerging DTC marketing play

Inabuggy continues to evolve from its roots as an online grocery delivery service into a company capable of providing a direct conduit between leading food brands and consumers.

The company announced this week that it had partnered with Conagra Brands Canada on a program that uses marketing technology and AI-driven data analytics to help the packaged goods company—whose brands include Healthy Choice, Ro*Tel and Pogo—develop a more "personalized relationship" with its customers.

It's part of ongoing efforts by Inabuggy to use its customer data to help brand partners drive trial and loyalty. The platform enables brands to stand out in ways they can't in a standard brick-and-mortar store, where they are typically competing with dozens of rival SKUs, says Brent Ali, who oversees strategic partnerships and digital insights marketing for Inabuggy.

"We realized that the platform was not only valuable to consumers, but also to brands looking to create a dramatic impact on conversion rates by raising awareness through strategic and direct-to-consumer marketing," he says.

The program uses a combination of social marketing and newsletters to drive customers to a dedicated page within the Inabuggy app and its online platform. The "Easy Meals" page showcases the three Conagra brands and multiple SKUs.

The page also features a content piece around the origins of the Pogo sausage-on-a-stick brand. Some of the Conagra products also offer a further enticement to customers with a 3% cash back offer, as opposed to Inabuggy's standard 2%.

Inabuggy's goal, says Ali, is to develop a strategy that enables brands to utilize a direct-to-consumer marketing approach within the environment that is powered by the consumer data at its disposal.

While consumers have established grocery preferences, these kinds of data-driven partnerships can help raise the profile—and potentially generate trial—of complementary products, he says.

The company has met with "well over one dozen" other CPG companies, says Ali, adding that the company expects to have more partnerships in place in the first and second quarter of next year. "They're all coming on board," he says.

Inabuggy currently lists more than 600,000 SKUs and has partnerships in place with more than 50 retailers across markets including Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton.