Sainsbury’s has appointed a new Head of Martech. With immediate effect, Dave Cain is responsible for strategy, governance and futureproofing of the British supermarket operator’s martech and adtech stacks. Martech plays currently a central role in Sainsbury’s digital transformation.
In his new position, Dave Cain succeeds Nick Burns Laycock, who was promoted last year to Head of CRM, Loyalty and Marketing Technology at Sainsbury’s. Cain brings more than 20 years’ experience in senior roles within martech and digital technologies. He began his career as a Digital Marketing Manager at drugstore operator Boots. Most recently, he was responsible for digital marketing at automotive parts group LKQ UK & Ireland.
BIMA (British Interactive Media Association), the UK’s trade association for digital and creative industries, has included Cain in its BIMA 100 list. This list recognises individuals who are shaping the future of the UK’s digital and technology sector. He is also active in the Data & Marketing Association (DMA).
Focus on data-driven marketing and personalisation
At Sainsbury’s, David Cain will be responsible for expanding and further developing its martech infrastructure. The focus will be on data-driven marketing and a connected and personalised customer experience.
The company has been using SAP’s retail management system for two years. The Retail Optimiser reported on this. Furthermore, the retailer uses Microsoft Azure as its central cloud platform for forecasting, replenishment planning and supply chain optimisation, partly via solutions from Blue Yonder.
Retail media platform unifies in-store, online and off-site channels
The most important project for David Cain is likely to be the new, unified retail media platform, Nectar360 Pollen. Loyalty specialist Nectar360, part of the J Sainsbury Group, designed and developed the platform independently, in collaboration with brand manufacturers and agencies. Sainsbury’s started to implement the solution in summer 2025 and is already reporting some successes. Initial promotions have shown that multi-channel campaigns can be more than two-and-a-half times as effective.
The Pollen platform brings together audience analysis, media planning, campaign activation, ongoing optimisation and measurement within a single environment. This is intended to enable brands and manufacturers to run connected campaigns across channels within the shop floor, online and off-site. The solution uses AI to take new purchase, search and interaction data into account in real time. Compliance with predefined rules is also monitored using AI.
Massive expansion of in-store media
Nectar360 also operates the network of digital screens at Sainsbury’s supermarkets and convenience stores. Nearly 3,000 of these screens are currently in use. The company plans to roll out a further 3,000 systems.
The retailer is increasingly developing its core Nectar loyalty programme into a personalisation platform. Under the name ‘Your Nectar Prices’, customers receive personalised offers based on their shopping behaviour. Sainsbury’s also intends to integrate its ‘SmartShop’ scan-and-go system into the platform.
