Dive Brief:
- A new study by consultancy firm Brick Meets Click showed online sales for supermarkets are strong, with multichannel operators producing larger transactions than solely e-commerce operators, according to Progressive Grocer.
- Brick Meets Click looked at online orders from 19 multichannel supermarkets — offering groceries in both traditional and online formats — over the course of one week. More than half of the stores in the study released showed average online orders between $120 and $180, compared to the average order size recently reported for Fresh Direct ($105) and AmazonFresh ($84).
- The study revealed the average dollar amount of lost sales where desired items were out of stock was about 3%, with the problem impacting nearly 40% of total orders.
Dive Insight:
Last year, consumer science research firm dunnhumby published a global report on consumer habits in multichannel grocery shopping and found it was surging all over the world, with the U.S. experiencing one of the largest increases in the segment.
Brick Meets Click’s report confirms that assessment, and shows that while e-commerce has a strong future in grocery, multichannel is where most analysts feel consumers are gravitating.
To better position themselves for success in a multichannel world, brick-and-mortar grocers should reassess the role of the physical store, reinventing the in-store shopping experience and finding ways to distinguish themselves among the competition.
Additionally, as online grocers continue to see increases in sales — more than one-third of primary grocery shoppers purchased groceries online in the past year, an A.T. Kearney study showed — retailers are seeking new ways to capture a growing share of the evolving online and digital market.