Many grocery shoppers are now turning to the internet to do their grocery shopping. Not only is it convenient, but online grocery shopping can also help you to save time and money. When you order your groceries online, you can choose from a wide selection of items and have them delivered directly to your door. In addition, it can help you to compare prices and find the best deals on the items that you need. As more and more people turn to the internet for their grocery needs, online grocery fulfillment is becoming an increasingly important part of the food supply chain.
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Data for today’s episode is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s report – U.S. Online Grocery Shopping Takes Off but Remains a Challenging Channel.
7 Stats about the Emergence of Online Grocery Fulfillment:
- Consumer’s prefer home delivery 4 to 1 vs. curbside pickup
- The top 7 grocers account for 81% of 2018 online sales, Amazon/Whole Foods leads with 34%
- Only 6% of consumers have shopped online for groceries via computer, only 2% via mobile
- Total U.S. grocery market is over $700 billion in sales across 38,000 locations
- Online grocery sales totaled $23.9 billion in 2018 – only 1.6% of total sales
- But $23.9 billion in 2018 sales was a 70% increase over the $14 billion in 2017 sales
- Mercator forecasts that U.S. grocery sales will double in the next four years
About the report
Driven by growing consumer e-commerce and advances in grocery order fulfillment, U.S. online grocery sales continue to increase to record levels. National and regional grocery chains are making major investments in technology and delivery resources to address this online sales channel. A new research report from Mercator Advisory Group, U.S. Online Grocery Shopping Takes Off but Remains a Challenging Channelassesses current industry challenges and opportunities as well as future considerations and implications for the grocery industry.
“Consumers want convenience and immediacy in their everyday shopping routines. Grocers have been late to the online party, but now they are going all out to support customers that prefer online shopping. But grocery order fulfillment is labor intensive and last-mile delivery is expensive, so the online channel will be financially challenging for grocers.” commented Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Services at Mercator Advisory Group, the author of this report.
This report is 14 pages long and has 4 exhibits.
Companies mentioned in this report: Ahold Delhaize, Albertsons, Aldi, Amazon.com, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Costco, Food Lion, FreshDirect, Instacart, Giant, Hannaford, H-E-B, Kroger, Lidl, Market Basket, Peapod, Postmates, Publix, Sam’s Club, Shipt, Smart & Final, Stew Leonard’s, Stop & Shop, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Wegmans, and Whole Foods.