# Experts Weigh In on Groceryshop 2021’s Most Important Trends Published 2021-09-20 · Updated 2026-03-19 · Retail on MarketScale Canonical: https://www.marketscale.com/industries/retail/experts-weigh-in-on-groceryshop-2021s-most-important-trends > Groceryshop 2021 is expected to give all sides of the broader food & beverage industry a better understanding of how recent accelerations and disruptions have shaped food technologies. The exciting mix of professionals from pop-up shop innovators, to visual intelligence developers, to SaaS and delivery platforms will offer one of the first in-person blends of… Block Field [Groceryshop 2021](https://groceryshop.com/) is expected to give all sides of the broader food & beverage industry a better understanding of how recent accelerations and disruptions have shaped food technologies. The exciting mix of professionals from pop-up shop innovators, to visual intelligence developers, to SaaS and delivery platforms will offer one of the first in-person blends of change for restaurants, grocers and more in over a year. We decided to source some pre-show thoughts on what various cutting-edge professionals see as the most exciting trends at this year’s show, and how they see said trends intersecting with needs for better products, better marketing, better output, and a better food & beverage experience. - We called up our good friend, CEO & Founder of The Lionesque Group, and host of [Retail Refined](https://marketscale.com/shows/retail-refined/), [Melissa Gonzalez](https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissagonzalezlionesque/), to chat labor, automation, and the brick & mortar shopping experience. - Predicting consumer behavior is at the top of the wishlist for nearly every major retailer. It used to come with a major price tag, but now AI and machine learning have become less expensive in some cases than traditional market research methods. [Jehan Hamedi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jehanhamedi/), CEO & founder of[ VIZIT,](https://vizit.com/) weighed in on how intelligence capabilities are helping brands create better products, packaging and imagery. - Big announcements on the SaaS platform side of the industry hit recently, as Zebra Technologies announced the acquisition of antuit.ai, a low-friction AI forecasting solution, to bring AI power to softwares as a service. We wanted to use this news as framing to better understand how machine learning will play a critical role in the future of forecasting in the grocery supply chain, so we sat down with [Sivakumar Lakshmanan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivakumarlakshmanan/), CEO of [antuit.ai](https://www.antuit.ai/), for his perspective on the merger and what’s next. - We also wanted perspectives on the last mile delivery trend accelerated last year by mass restaurant closures and quarantines. Grocery stores and restaurants alike were forced to decide: do they invest in their own in-house delivery services, or do they go with the established but sometimes profit-siphoning white label service instead? Where does technology play a role, and which investment is most sound depending on your size and available resources? [Avi Friedman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/avi-friedman/?originalSubdomain=il), head of logistics and delivery platforms at Via, a leader in [TransitTech](https://ridewithvia.com/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=ride), weighed in. --- Source: MarketScale, https://www.marketscale.com/industries/retail/experts-weigh-in-on-groceryshop-2021s-most-important-trends. Published for AI indexing and citation; cite the canonical URL. Site guide for agents: https://www.marketscale.com/llms.txt