Despite the fact that multichannel grocery shopping is surging across the globe, the U.S. lags far behind in this category according to a global study conducted by dunnhumby.
The convenience of “click and deliver” grocery services is now entering the market in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but the online grocery market in the U.S. is far behind markets such as France, South Korea, and the UK.
What’s more, dunnhumby’s study shows how important physical stores are in the U.S. when it comes to gaining consumer acceptance for new products. According to the study, 26% of U.S. shoppers consider household items an important category for online shopping, but just 8% say it is likely they would buy a product for the first time in this category online. In comparison, 36% of consumers in China would be likely to buy a new household product online.
Multichannel grocery shopping is saving customers time and energy by making the customer experience more accessible, the study says.
Here are a few key reasons this trend will shape the future of the retail industry:
There is rapid growth across all levels of market maturity for online shopping. In established markets, growth is exceeding 30% and in emerging and nascent markets there is 90% growth.
The impact of an online shopping experience is larger than the sales numbers would suggest, with multichannel customers worth more to retailers across all categories (30%-67% more than average).
Shopping behavior is significantly different online than in-store (i.e., the level of healthy purchasing is 42% higher online).
Brands are seeing 20%-50% of sales through online grocery shopping. Establishing a winning online strategy will be crucial to stay ahead of the trend and allow for future growth, as multichannel customers will be 28% more valuable to brands.
According to the study, the three categories with the highest share of online sales – frozen meat, baby food and baby care, and canned food – have an average annual online growth rate of 21%.
Online performance is also shown to be affected by how a brand’s audience matches the typical online shopper – generally younger, affluent consumers with young children – as well as brands’ understanding and response to the path to purchase in their category, including how consumers use search, search terms and favorites accordingly, the study says.
“Across the globe, there’s a marked increase in multichannel grocery shopping, particularly among time and sleep starved parents who benefit most from being able to shop any time, without leaving home,” Julian Highley, Global Director of customer Knowledge at dunnhumby, said in a release. “Baby food and baby care products not only appear in the top three categories, but these are clearly important gateway products for new online shoppers. While there is strong multichannel growth throughout the world, there are particular challenges in the U.S. preventing the market from reaching the same level of development as elsewhere. In smaller cities, it’s likely that click-and-collect services will be the dominant method for online shopping.”