Grocery shopping is a regular part of life. It is not just a frequent purchase but a high proportion of household spend. Even though it lags behind the rest of retail, online shopping for groceries is on the rise (12% in the UK, and between 4% and 8% in the US) with over half of consumers in the UK now shopping online with other countries not far behind.
Amazon acquired Whole Foods in July of 2017, beyond the shockwave effect of the news, it left US grocers with little time to strategize how to compete with Amazon in a new way.
With this acquisition grocers are being forced to think outside the scope of traditional grocery aisles. Some wasted no time in taking action; for example, Target launching same day delivery through acquisition of Shipt, Aldi & Lidl opening hundreds of stores in the US , or the weekly PR push from Walmart with topics ranging from acquisitions to technology and workforce investments. The Whole Foods/Amazon news pushed even Kroger, the country’s largest traditional grocer, to acquire specialty store, Murray’s Cheese and begin thinking about additional acquisitions outside of their regular prevue ala Overstock and Boxed.
The ecommerce laggards
Recent RichRelevance research has highlighted grocery lags behind the rest of retail when it comes to online shopping. Just over half of the UK population shop online for groceries (53%) and in the US the opposite is true, with over half (55%) choosing not to buy their groceries online.
Although 53% of people in the UK are doing some or all their grocery shopping online, there’s a massive gap between what consumers want, and what retailers are offering, according to new research.
Shoptalk 2018 – Las Vegas, NV – March 19, 2018 – RichRelevance, the global leader in Experience Personalization, today announced key findings from a new 2018 study that looks at consumer preferences and behavior around digital grocery. The study identifies consumers’ appetite for digital grocery and picks out early leaders, as well as the features and capabilities that shoppers want and need.