New Tech Aims to Level the Aisles for Independent Grocers

LAVAL, Quebec – January 29, 2026 – In a move poised to reshape the competitive landscape for independent grocers, retail technology veterans LOC Software and AI-native platform Local Express have announced a strategic partnership. The alliance will deliver a unified commerce solution designed to dismantle the operational barriers that have long plagued Main Street grocery stores in their fight against retail giants.

The joint offering aims to create a single, automated system for managing sales across all channels—from the physical store and e-commerce websites to digital marketplaces and third-party ordering apps. By creating a “single source of truth” for product data, the companies assert they can solve some of the most pressing challenges facing the grocery sector today.

Tackling Grocery's Deep-Seated Crises

Independent grocers are currently navigating a treacherous economic environment, squeezed by intense competition and persistent operational headwinds. A critical pain point is the ongoing labor crisis. Industry data from 2024 revealed that a staggering 68% of grocers found labor availability to be “difficult” or “very difficult,” a situation exacerbated by high turnover rates that reached 39% for store-level employees in fiscal year 2023.

This labor shortage places immense strain on daily operations, impacting everything from stocking shelves to managing complex digital storefronts. The new solution from LOC Software and Local Express directly targets this issue by automating the highly manual and error-prone task of harmonizing product data. Instead of dedicating scarce employee hours to updating prices, promotions, and inventory levels across multiple disconnected systems, grocers can reallocate staff to customer-facing roles.

Beyond labor, inefficient inventory management remains a significant drain on profitability. Independent grocers saw inventory shrink—the loss of product due to theft, damage, or error—climb to 3.5% in fiscal year 2024. The challenge lies in balancing stock to avoid costly waste while preventing out-of-stocks that frustrate customers and lead to lost sales. A unified system that provides a real-time, accurate view of inventory across all sales channels is crucial for optimizing this balance and protecting thin profit margins.

The Data Dilemma: Unifying a Fragmented Shopping Experience

While many independent grocers have embraced digital sales—with 76% offering online ordering for store pickup—their technology stacks are often a patchwork of disparate systems that do not communicate effectively. This creates a data dilemma, where the in-store point-of-sale (POS) system, the e-commerce platform, and third-party apps all operate from different, and often conflicting, sets of information.

The result is a poor experience for both the grocer and the customer. Staff are forced to manually update product details on multiple platforms, a process that is not only time-consuming but also a frequent source of errors. For shoppers, it can mean encountering price discrepancies, seeing items listed as available online when they are out of stock, or finding inconsistent product descriptions.

The partnership between LOC and Local Express is engineered to solve this fragmentation by seamlessly integrating LOC’s enterprise-grade POS and back-office suite with Local Express’s AI-native omnichannel platform. This creates a continuous, bidirectional flow of information, ensuring product data, inventory levels, and pricing are consistent everywhere, in real time.

“Preparing product information for marketplaces and online ordering platforms has long been a pain point for grocers, and manual processes often lead to inconsistent information and poor customer experiences,” said Bagrat Safarian, CEO and Co-Founder of Local Express. “Our partnership with LOC gives grocers a smooth onramp to eCommerce with a strong point of sale and back-office solution and contemporary user interfaces for digital sales. Those tools are no longer fragmented.”

Leveling the Playing Field for Main Street

The strategic implications of this partnership extend far beyond simple operational efficiency. By making sophisticated, enterprise-level technology accessible and affordable, the alliance aims to level the competitive playing field between independent grocers and large national chains.

For years, retail giants have leveraged their vast resources to build integrated technology ecosystems that provide a seamless omnichannel experience. This new solution provides independent operators with a similar competitive advantage without the prohibitive cost or need for a large IT department. It empowers them to compete on convenience and customer experience, not just price.

“With decades of experience delivering reliable, enterprise-grade point-of-sale technology to independent grocers, LOC Software has built a reputation for robust, scalable solutions that retailers can depend on,” stated Gilles Lapierre, CEO of LOC. “Our partnership with Local Express gives grocers a solution that creates unified experiences no matter how customers choose to shop, which helps increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Together, we’re making this functionality accessible to independents, giving our customers a true competitive advantage and leveling the playing field with larger competitors.”

The financial benefits are compelling. By automating labor-intensive tasks, grocers can reduce operational costs. By improving inventory accuracy, they can minimize shrink and lost sales. Furthermore, by offering a superior and reliable online shopping experience, they can increase customer loyalty and capture larger average transaction values, as online grocery baskets are often significantly larger than their in-store counterparts.

A New Standard for Retail Integration

The integration is being hailed as the first of its kind for the independent grocery industry, not just for connecting systems but for the depth of its automated, real-time data synchronization. This moves beyond simple batch updates to an event-driven architecture where a change made in one place—such as a sale at the checkout or a price update in the back office—is instantly reflected across the entire digital ecosystem.

LOC Software and Local Express are set to officially introduce the integrated solution to the industry at The NGA Show in Las Vegas from February 1-3, 2026. The launch marks a pivotal moment, signaling a shift away from fragmented, siloed operations toward a future of truly unified commerce for grocers of all sizes. This evolution promises to enhance operational agility, allowing grocers to quickly adapt to market changes and, ultimately, deliver a more consistent and reliable shopping experience for their communities.