Shopping online for groceries tends to appeal more to Millennials, according to a survey from Nielsen, but at the same time more and more people all over the world say they are willing to use digital retailing options in the future.
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This could shape e-commerce further, as the growing number of digital shoppers will encourage retailers to provide more digital tools for ease of shopping and make online shopping experiences even more enjoyable and yes, one or two steps further more engaging.
Online food shopping behavior of U.S. consumers
In 2012, 14% of U.S. consumers already did their grocery shopping online and Millennials ranked first at highest expenditure share of online grocery shopping. (Statista) Moreover, online grocery sales grew to 6.5 billion dollars in 2013, up from 6 billion in 2012.
In merely two years, the number of online shoppers rose to 198.2 million and it is expected to reach 224 million by 2019, Statista projects.
As the number of people who shop online continues to grow, so will grocery sale opportunities because retailers will most likely adjust their business model to online and mobile technologies in order to increase their market share.
Digital strategies will probably become more available to smaller businesses as well, not just big companies, and this could bring about more advantages to shoppers who will be able to source groceries from various retailers and specialty stores otherwise not available locally.
Food retailers online
Retailers first took to online offerings in the form of online shops sometime in the yearly 1990s, but at the time, there was still a strong preference for brick-and-mortar stores. People just weren’t ready for digital food shopping. In addition, Millennials who seem to be driving online sales today were too young to penetrate the market in the first decade of the 1990s.
The majority of big food retailers run online shops nowadays with a number of strategies to drive sales:
- Online coupons distribution.
- Free at-home delivery.
- Lower prices than physical stores.
- Mobile app promotions.
- Mobile shopping apps.
- Products availability across channels.
- Unique brands on ecommerce channel.
A study released by Statista shows the number of online food coupons that were distributed by six U.S. retail grocery stores in April 2013. During a 4-weeks time, U.S. retail grocery chains distributed 1,056 food coupons for online shopping.
According to the same source, in 2011 shoppers redeemed 2.1 billion food grocery coupons, which were up from 1.7 billion in 2007. However, the number fell to 1.7 billion in 2012 and 2013, and in 2014, only 1.53 billion coupons were redeemed in the United States nationwide.
The changing behavior doesn’t necessarily imply that people opt out voluntarily of grocery coupons when shopping, it could simply mean that food retailers need to tailor their coupon offerings better so people can actually benefit from them.
If stores, both traditional and online offered high value food coupons and convenient ways of access, it’s likely that more people would redeem them and more people would shop online.
Final thoughts
There is future for online grocery shopping and that future’s already started. Shopping online for groceries can surely reduce a number of inconveniences: trips to physical, traditional stores, hassle and stress looking for items on shelves, time spent on looking for clearance sections in stores, the numerous trips to find the right store, the numerous trips to check prices between retailers etc.
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Online shopping doesn’t have to become the radical approach to save time and money, but it could definitely make our lives easier so long as retailers work to provide shoppers with more opportunities.