Beyond Digital by DMI #04: Ubamarket: Solving Tomorrow’s Commerce Challenges, Today

In this episode we’re joined by Will Broome, Founder and CEO of Ubamarket, and DMI’s own Erin Kreiger, Creative Director for DMI’s Experience Group.  Armed with an idea born of necessity almost seven years ago, Will and DMI embarked on a journey to redefine the grocery shopping experience.  Add in a global pandemic, and what were once seen as award-winning “futuristic” features are now full-on business requirements, leading to uncharted demand for Ubamarket’s apps from both grocery and hospitality retail segments.

Will and Erin discuss the evolution of Ubamarket’s products and opine on the vision, strategy and stamina needed to survive in today’s market. You’ll learn how Ubamarket’s apps were perfectly placed before the pandemic for this “necessity as the mother of adoption” moment. You’ll also learn how Ubamarket now solves for much more than it originally set out to, with its clear-cut value-adds that including saving time for end users, reducing labor costs, generating bigger user carts, delivering more meaningful customer data, and compatibility with both current self-checkout systems and third-party delivery services.

We are navigating rapid technological advancements in the retail and hospitality spaces. So don’t miss this episode’s essential conversations about consumer behavior data, the touch-free and no-till grocery of tomorrow (today), rewards and loyalty programs, and how Ubamarket’s apps put owners back in control by solving for Covid requirements, delivery fees, labor shortages and more.

The Origins of Ubamarket and the “Magic Shopping List” – 4:35

Will discusses the original value drivers that birthed Ubamarket, how Friday night shopping lists sent via text message by his family left him wandering and backtracking through grocery store aisles, wondering if there could be a better way to shop for groceries. Will explains how this passing thought planted the seed for what the company would eventually call the “Magic Shopping List” – as well as Ubamarket’s umbrella of apps developed in partnership with DMI. “The guys from DMI took my concept in painstaking detail and helped me to realize my vision a reality with the tech that was available,” Will says, explaining how the company was able to help him bring the complicated nature of grocery retail – selecting goods, paying, accruing loyalty points, using discounts – into a frictionless app experience.

Data Monetization:  Purchase Pattern vs Behaviour Data – 13:01

Will and Erin talk about how the Ubamarket app delivers far more than just purchase pattern behavior. “Loyalty programs give you purchase pattern behavior – what do you buy,” Will says. “Ubamarket delivers behavior pattern data – when did they write their list, when they went into the store, what did they put on their list, did they buy what was on their list.” Will and Erin then discuss how access to this data can help stores hyper-personalize their shopping experience to each individual shopper.

Ubamarket:  Scan Pay Go & Nomm  – 14:45

Will explains how the Ubamarket Scan Pay Go app led to Nomm, an app that does for restaurants what Ubamarket’s Scan Pay Go app does for grocery stores. Will and Erin discuss how the core functionality undergirding the Ubamarket apps can drive multiple business models and needs no hardware investment from the customer.

New “Nomm-al” Value Drivers – 18:22

Will and Erin discuss how the pandemic accelerated the adoption of technology by pubs, bars and restaurants – and how Ubamarket, with its Nomm app, was ahead of the curve and much better positioned than the sub-standard apps that started popping up during the pandemic. “The pandemic accelerated technology in retail and hospitality by at least 3-5 years,” says Will.

Helping Businesses Regain Control of Labor, Delivery and Fees – 21:41

Erin explains how DMI is also helping to develop the backend systems of the Ubamarket and Nomm apps so that stores and restaurants can manage orders without any need for hardware investments. “We are putting stores and restaurants back in control of their own destiny,” Will adds, referencing the hit these establishments took when partnering with third-party pickup and delivery apps. Erin and Will also discuss labor shortages in the retail and hospitality industry and how Ubamarket and Nomm have helped to fill the void for customers.

Scalable and Highly Customizable – 28:26

Will notes how DMI helped him to keep the focus on the apps as a “mechanism—a consumer-driven tool” to enable a revolutionary omnichannel retail experience. Erin explains how DMI emphasizes business requirements, human focus, and technical feasibility when developing the apps – an approach that allows the apps to be scalable and highly customizable for specific brands and businesses. Erin also notes how this approach has allowed the company to market the apps to other clients. Will concurs, adding that he sees lots of opportunities for growth within the US market particularly – from retail and hospitality to travel: “From a tech perspective, we are a long way ahead of the game.”