Three emerging tech companies pitched cutting‑edge ideas from sampling technology to AI‑driven pricing optimization and shoppable video content.
By: Jennifer Shawgo, Senior Director, Technology Strategy & Programs, FMI
At this year’s FMI Midwinter Executive Conference, the FMItech Pitch Competition brought three finalists to the stage—Swish, Better Basket, and Genuin—each helping to shape the future of food retail technology.
Industry judges and FMI Midwinter attendees chose Swish as the winner, earning the top spot by demonstrating that the best retail technology innovations enhance both efficiency and experience.
However, all three companies offered a clear signal about where food retail technology is heading: improving customer experience and authentic connection with solutions designed for straightforward integration into existing retail systems and owned digital properties.
Swish
Swish brings programmatic targeting to product sampling in e-commerce grocery, placing full-size samples directly into online orders using AI and transactional data to match products with high-intent shoppers.
Traditional sampling is expensive, difficult to measure, and lacks purchase attribution. Swish solves this by treating the product itself as media, delivering measurable product discovery with closed-loop attribution. Retailers track exactly what happened after sample delivery and have seen measurable improvements in household penetration, product velocity, and customer lifetime value.
For retailers, Swish creates a new retail media revenue stream that integrates into e-commerce platforms without operational burden. For shoppers, it brings surprise and discovery back to online grocery shopping. Judges and attendees responded to the clarity of value for shoppers, retailers, and CPGs.
Better Basket
Better Basket uses AI to optimize pricing by analyzing competitive data, sales performance, and cost changes in real time, monitoring pricing across 20,000+ zip codes daily and generating recommendations on where to hold price, invest, or pull back.
The platform addresses the challenge that pricing is manual and reactive. Better Basket replaces spreadsheet analysis with a single system providing everyday and promotional pricing recommendations, smart rules that resolve conflicts automatically, and promotion effectiveness measurement. The AI analyzes elasticity data to boost revenue or margins by up to 8% while maintaining competitive positioning.
Better Basket integrates with POS and electronic shelf label systems, enabling grocers to update prices efficiently across stores.
Genuin
Genuin enables grocers to integrate short-form video content into their digital properties, aggregating shoppable video from brands, creators, and associates within retailer-controlled channels rather than third-party platforms.
The platform integrates with five lines of code and uses generative AI to create, curate, and personalize video automatically. Retailers can feature meal prep tutorials, product recommendations, or brand storytelling designed to drive engagement and conversion. Genuin addresses discovery and inspiration while allowing retailers to own the experience and capture engagement data, creating a new retail media revenue opportunity that delivers longer engagement, improved conversion, and a differentiated online experience for shoppers.
FMI members can explore other leading-edge technology solution companies through the exclusive FMItech Directory.
Thank you to our publication partner, SmartBrief, for capturing interviews with each of the FMItech Pitch Competition finalists.
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