Mars Prepares for Sales in the Era of AI Shopping Assistants

The candy group is adjusting its commercial chain to the arrival of autonomous shopping assistants. Data, language models, and partnerships with distributors and agencies are being mobilized to maintain brand visibility and convert queries into shopping carts, without betting on the end of checkout counters.

Publicis, Data, and New Teams to Accelerate Connected Commerce

Last summer, Mars entrusted Publicis with the management of its connected commerce capabilities. According to the company, this collaboration aims to enhance the customer journey through personalized and effortless experiences, while granting access to data held by Publicis, particularly regarding connected identity. At the same time, Mars is establishing One Demand performance teams that bring together brand managers, data analysts, and agency partners. The group is also partnering with emerging tech companies to obtain data on its brands' visibility in language models and is gathering insights on how its categories and brands currently appear.

Winning the Query: Being Found by LLMs and Converting to Purchases

Mars is working to make its brands discoverable by language models and ensuring that this exposure translates into purchases. The company seeks to understand how its categories and brands can stand out in autonomous commerce. Mars is preparing for a future where autonomous shopping assistants will take an increasing share of weekly grocery shopping, while anticipating, according to Neil Reynolds, Global Client Director, that in-store checkout counters will not disappear and that these assistants will play an increasingly important role. This direction is supported by a report dedicated to the future of shopping and retail, conducted in collaboration with Kantar and Synthesis.

With Distributors, Towards Immersive In-Store Experiences

Mars intends to design retail spaces that offer an immersive experience. The company aims to collaborate with distributors to establish diverse cultural frameworks and enrich the customer experience at the point of sale. Mars is transforming the nature of its business relationships by opting for strategic partnerships, focusing on technical collaborations between data teams and projects related to the store of the future, with the goal of providing more immersive and attractive shopping journeys for snack products. These initiatives concern its snack brands such as Dove, M&Ms, and Pop-Tarts.