Dive Brief:
- Amazon Prime members spend five more hours visiting 50 more online shopping businesses than other shoppers, according to GfK research reported in Supermarket News.
- Amazon Prime has a subscriber base of somewhere between 65 million and 80 million people. The company generates $6.4 billion in revenue from them.
- The report showed about a third of Prime users visited grocery websites or apps, compared to just 25% of non-Prime members.
Dive Insight:
While the rise of Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go have many grocery retailers worried, not everything about Amazon should be perceived as a threat. With 32% of Prime members visiting grocery websites and apps, it’s a sign that grocery retailers they can still be successful on ecommerce.
Retailers can engage these online shoppers into their own programs and apps. Even though Prime members have paid for special access and deals, this report proves they're willing to shop elsewhere. Not only are they not solely dedicated to Amazon, but they're used to the online shopping experience and are willing to take advantage of it from other retailers.
The study showed Prime members were also shown to more likely to visit apps and sites of club stores that require membership. Retailers can engage their customer base with special membership deals or arrangements as well.
While Amazon Prime members might be good targets for grocery ecommerce now, the broader shopping population is expected to move that direction soon. Unata and Brick Meets Click found that more consumers are expected to buy groceries online in the year ahead in their 2017 Grocery eCommerce Forecast. Nielsen and the Food Marketing Institute expect online grocery to be a $100 billion business by 2025.
Analysts say retailers should look for ways to differentiate their e-commerce offerings. If a retailer cannot win on speed or user experience, it should work to build engagement through bringing personality or unique offerings to online customers. Texas-proud retailer H-E-B has seen success through this strategy, creating a page that showcases the best Texas-made products.