Much of this growth is attributed to “more familiarity with technology, more millennial shoppers, and more effective models,” according to Childs. “Retailers are savvy about creating fun and enticing
marketplaces for buying food, especially perishables. For about half the shoppers, grocery shopping is experiential and as long as this outweighs it as a ‘chore,’ it will be a personalized and social undertaking.”
A recent study by Deloitte details the interrelationship of online and offline shopping: about half of all brick-and-mortar purchases were influenced by some form of online stimulus—though for grocery sales the figure was lower, at 33 percent. Further, Anderson says, “At least a quarter of offline [food] purchases had some digital influence from shoppers either researching before they leave home, looking at ratings and reviews, or pricing and nutritional information.”
Amazon’s Big Grocery Push
Not many years ago, most grocers’ biggest concern was Walmart’s expansion into grocery. Now they have a new worry that is shared by Walmart: Amazon. Amazon is making a splash with several platforms, including AmazonFresh for local deliveries and the AmazonDash ordering system.
Sansolo believes Walmart is gauging Amazon’s progress and will be ready to respond, both online and in stores. “Nobody has as many stores as Walmart, so they always matter. Even if Amazon flops, which is unlikely, the world is going to change,” he notes.
With such ongoing experimentation, Sansolo is sure “somebody is going to figure this out. It’s impossible to think that five years from now we won’t have a successful model operating in online grocery—and everybody will be trying to catch up.”
Numainville agrees: “Amazon is just one example of the wide range of retailers and others experimenting and testing various concepts.” He says to be on the lookout for new offerings from Walmart, as well as Google, Uber, Alibaba, and many others.
