SAN DIEGO — Mercato, the e-commerce platform created for America’s independent grocers and specialty food stores, announced today that it has partnered with the National Co+op Grocers (NCG), an organization that works to foster growth and efficiency within the cooperative grocery sector. Through this partnership, NCG will provide member stores with Mercato’s digital capabilities, including online ordering and delivery.
“We have vetted various e-commerce partners in the industry and are confident that Mercato is the best solution for NCG’s growing community of cooperative grocers,” said Heather Brooks, National Co+op Grocers’ director of retail business technology. “With their willingness to develop digital solutions specific to our co-ops’ needs, Mercato has shown that they’re dedicated to servicing grocers in whatever fashion it takes, so long as the customer benefits in the end.”
Built upon a mission of supporting independent grocers, Mercato equips merchants with a clean and seamless online ordering and delivery function along with robust e-commerce reporting and analytics. For NCG, Mercato is customizing its platform to ensure co-op shoppers can use their member number when shopping online. In addition, Mercato will be incorporating payment via EBT for SNAP benefits, which is something of particular interest to co-ops.
Bobby Brannigan, founder and CEO of Mercato, said: “Co-ops are a true expression of communities coming together around food, and that’s at the very root of Mercato’s mission. While we’ve been fortunate to have a few co-ops on our platform for some time, we are extremely excited to expand this base and to deliver digital capabilities to additional communities across the country.”
Mercato is providing NCG with a team of dedicated e-commerce specialists who will work with co-ops in the onboarding process and also direct marketing efforts to ensure co-op customers understand the ease associated with ordering via Mercato.
About Mercato
Mercato offers e-commerce and same-day delivery of high-quality groceries and specialty foods from over 1,000 independent grocery stores across the country. Bobby Brannigan, an entrepreneur who grew up working in his parent’s grocery store in Brooklyn, N.Y., created Mercato to level the playing field by bringing online shopping and delivery to independent grocers and their valued customers. For more information, visit Mercato.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
About National Co+Op Grocers
National Co+op Grocers (NCG) is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located throughout the United States. We represent 148 food co-ops operating over 200 stores in 38 states with combined annual sales over $2.3 billion and serving over 1.3 million consumer-owners. NCG provides the capacity of a chain while maintaining the autonomy of each individual co-op. We help unify natural food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere. Learn more about participating in NCG.
