Much of the focus in the grocery industry over the last three years has been on online adoption, but startups like Clerk aim to bring some digitization to the brick-and-mortar grocery experience as long as 90 percent of U.S. food purchases still occur in stores.
While Nickell witnessed Amazon and Walmart storm forward in the marketing and product merchandising spaces, he identified a need from the rest of the space that didn't have the capacity to innovate. In 2016, Nickell co-founded Clerk with Don Oelke and Edward Cates in Austin.
Grocery TV, launched by Clerk is a digital advertising network that provides displays for brands and merchants to use to improve the shopping experience, primarily in the checkout aisle.
The current picture
The company now has over 14,000 displays at stores, including ShopRite, Bashas', and Cub Foods, in all 50 states. It has also partnered with programmatic networks like The Trade Desk and Yahoo DSP to let agencies and brands like Chase and Anheuser-Busch reach a 30-million-strong grocery-shopper audience.
Additionally, the company released a SaaS merchandising tool that employs machine learning to ensure that products are in stock and properly shelved. Dotdash Meredith, unveiled in 2021 and uses Clerk's technology to handle its publications in over 15,000 outlets per quarter, is one of its partnerships.
Clerk's digital screens are not a new notion; a few companies have been putting digital signs into supermarket aisles for the past decade or two, primarily for in-store advertising: NoviSign, ScreenCloud, Cooler Screens, EasyScreen, and the In-Store Broadcasting Network. Premier Retail Networks was also a pioneer in this field with its Checkout TV product, sold in Walmart stores in the United States.
Nickell observed that an emphasis on engineering — which is his background — was required to keep technological costs down.
Clerk is doing it correctly, according to Nickell, by using a "First Principles approach," which allows the company to provide a reduced cost structure. Because more consumers are habituated to consuming a lot of content, the advent of social media is making in-store retail advertising easier.
The Potential for Growth
Silverton Partners provided $5 million in Series A fund to Clerk two years ago and has grown its network by 350 percent, from 750 to 2,700 locations. Nickell told TechCrunch that the company is planning its largest installation yet next month, which will bring the total to over 3,000.
In the meantime, Clerk tripled its income in the last two years and became profitable last year and expanded its store and screen count.
Marlow Nickell, CEO of Clerk said, “When we have the opportunity for growth, we want to take it. We will use this round to catapult us into the market. Something that is unique about this space is that grocery stores want to know you are going to stick around, so to be a successful technology company in the space, you have to be building a lasting company and one that will be a tech partner for the future,”
Dean Nelson, a partner at Sageview will join the company’s board of directors as a part of the investment, while Sageview principal Roberto Avila will serve as a board observer.
Series B is a pure growth round, whereas Series A was focused on scaling the market and team. Clerk currently employs 30 people and plans to expand its team, partnerships, and shop count over two to three years. Additionally, the funds will be used to develop technologies and products, including new merchandising analytics.
