What’s Next for Clerk (and Grocery TV)

At Clerk, our vision is to give brands the same real-time access to brick-and-mortar marketing and merchandising opportunities that they have online.

Why are we so excited about the physical retail space?

• • With 90% of grocery sales occurring in physical stores, we believe that brick-and-mortar is an essential part of the shopper journey and has immense potential to further influence decisions and build brand awareness.
• • Retail media has grown dramatically over the last few years (expected to reach $50B in ad spend by 2023). Currently this growth is focused online. We see connecting digital online advertising with digital in-store advertising as a natural next step to creating a holistic shopper journey.
• • Over the last 3 years, we saw an average in-stock rate of 81% on the Grocery TV network. Applied to the entire US market, this rate translates to roughly $1.1B annually in lost sales for products sold in the checkout aisle. For our endemic brand and retail partners, we’re working to solve this out-of-stock problem, and we’re also beginning to use our understanding of customer preferences to recommend product assortment changes that improve conversion.

To realize our vision, we’ve built a platform where partners can manage their in-store marketing and merchandising activities. We’re very proud of the work the team has done to build this platform as well as our flagship product, Grocery TV, an in-store digital advertising network that also has the capability to track product performance at the front-end.

Last week we announced Clerk’s $30M Series B raise led by Sageview Capital. This milestone marks a new chapter of growth both for Clerk and Grocery TV. We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to partner with Sageview and leverage their experience with software and technology companies as we enter this next phase of our business.

The retail industry is at a major turning point— consumers, accustomed to the personalization available online, have higher expectations from brick-and-mortar shopping experiences. Brands are looking for innovative ways to engage with their audience in stores, and retailers want to keep up with today’s evolving demands and technology. At Clerk, we’re focused on bridging this gap between the online and in-person experience.

We’ve achieved many milestones in the two years since our Series A funding, including a 350% increase in network size. This partnership with Sageview will enable us to further expand the Grocery TV network and our merchandising products in a meaningful way for brands and retailers.

Specifically, we will:

• • Accelerate Grocery TV’s growth across the United States.
• • Expand Grocery TV beyond the checkout aisle to cover all key parts of the store.
• • Launch new merchandising services and cover new product categories.

I want to give a huge thank you to our amazing team, our partners, and my co-founders, Don Oelke and Edward Cates. I’m proud to work alongside such a passionate group of people, and I can’t wait to see what else we can accomplish together. Here’s to the next chapter of Clerk!