Dive Brief:
- Online grocery sales will rise by 21.1% between 2013 and 2018, according to a new research report, dwarfing an approximately 3% rise in sales at brick-and-mortar stores.
- The report from the research unit of Business Insider suggests that new investments by major tech players such as Amazon, combined with an influx of investor cash, will push the industry to a previously unseen level of acceptance by consumers.
- Another key factor, according to BI, is that some 25% of millennial consumers are willing top pay for same-day delivery of groceries.
Dive Insight:
While seemingly every other industry on earth has been changed enormously by Internet sales, the grocery business has remained largely untouched. Less than 1% of food and beverage sales originate online today - a fact that BI is quick to acknowledge.
If that is to change, and it almost certainly will, it's only going to take two things to make it happen: better technology and younger consumers. And both appear to be on the way.