[CHICAGO, IL] DECEMBER 4, 2024 — The Independent Grocers Alliance today announced the acquisition of Inmar’s Scanner Applications, a performance-based media company that sets up scanned-based retail promotions, adjudicates claims, and provides analytics and fraud control. The goal of the acquisition is to make it easier, less expensive, and more efficient for independent retailers to execute promotions in their stores.
Founded in 1991, Scanner Applications, which will be known as ScanApps going forward, is the original performance-based media company, and serves independent and chain retailers across the United States with on-shelf offers. Scan-based offers do not compete with trade funds; instead, they allow brands to stimulate sales across all retailers nationally, regionally, or locally, with discounts only going to shoppers who bought during the promotional period. While ScanApps will continue to serve both independent and chain retailers, the acquisition allows for an increased focus on independent retailers that will ultimately bring more promotional savings to the shoppers of independent stores.
“Shoppers in urban, suburban and rural locations love to shop locally owned stores,” says John Ross, CEO of IGA. “Independent chains like IGA, which has over 2,100 stores in the USA and 6,500 globally, have real power in their ‘hyper-local’ focus, but our individuality often makes it hard for brands to reach our shoppers.”
Ross says that the complexity of loading promotions and running advertising efficiently across thousands of different locally owned grocery stores often means independent shoppers miss out on savings that shoppers in national retailers can access.
“It isn’t that brands don’t want to market to shoppers in family-owned grocery stores,” Ross says. “In fact, our shoppers are more brand loyal and more likely to respond to promotions, which means brands that work with the new ScanApps will likely have a much higher ROI than those working with big national or global chains.”
“It used to be that brands could drop a national coupon and effectively cover all shoppers,” Ross says. “But those days are long gone, and we have a complex web of different options in their place. ScanApps’ job is to allow a brand to pick its target audience, set up an offer, and have that offer run anywhere they want, right on the grocery store shelf, without worrying about technology, platforms, or point-of-sale systems.”
“We have relied on Scanner Applications to set up offers, adjudicate claims, and provide analytics and fraud control for brands since IGA launched our Retail Media Network almost eight years ago. They have a reputation for trust in our industry and have been a great partner. It made perfect sense to bring them into the IGA family to help lower costs for our U.S. offering and to look at opportunities to scale them internationally,” Ross says.
Operationally, IGA says nothing will change when the Scanner Applications team comes under the IGA portfolio of companies. Brands and retailers should expect to see new products, including global opportunities in the near future, but all offers flow, claims adjudication, and accounts payable functions will continue as normal.
The acquisition is one of several made to enhance membership in the Independent Grocers Alliance, including the 2020 acquisition of ADvay Media Group, which makes Connected TV ads, marketplace analysis, and digital marketing affordable for independent grocers; and the 2023 acquisition of What Brands Want, a marketing consultancy focused on shopper marketing and brand strategy.
About ScanApps
ScanApps, formerly known as Scanner Applications by Inmar, is now owned by the Independent Promotions Network, a subsidiary of the Independent Grocers Alliance. The original performance-based media company, founded in 1991, ScanApps serves retailers across the United States with on-shelf offers.
About Independent Grocers Alliance
The Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA) was founded in 1926, bringing together independent grocers across the United States to ensure that the trusted, family-owned local grocery store remained strong in the face of growing chain competition. IGA is the world's largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of over $43 billion per year. The Alliance includes more than 6,300 stores globally, with operations in 46 of the United States and over 25 countries.