Is Online Grocery Shopping Headed Our Way?

For many of us in the consumer packaged goods industry, the assumption that online shopping doesn’t pose the same threat to us as it does to some retailers is common, after all, not many online retailers offer milk or chicken. However, the looming threat of online grocery shopping, which seems to grow over time, if far closer to home than we might think.

Take, for example, this recent article from Buffalo News, “Dash’s Market launches online grocery shopping”: http://www.buffalonews.com/business/dashs-market-launches-online-grocery-shopping-20150224. According to the article, Dash’s Market, a grocery chain in Western New York, is the first in the area to offer online grocery shopping, giving customers the option to purchase online and then either pick up from the physical location or have the order delivered.

The trend being adopted by stores such as Dash’s is becoming quite common in the face of changing customer expectations. Store downsizing, rightsizing, even the move of previously online-only retailers to physical locations are all other examples of this trend to meet the growing needs of today’s consumer. And that’s not all. If you think that online grocery shopping isn’t really going to materialize, and that it really doesn’t pose much a threat, the fact that it is expected to become a $17.2 billion industry by 2019 may just cause you to reconsider that line of thinking.

And while Dash’s is the first in Western New York, two other top chains have already started the research to implement it in the area. Clearly this trend is picking up speed, and although it is across the border, it is just across the border. Really, how long before our major chains are taking a page out of their book?

This isn’t all bad news. It may be a threat, but does it mean that all consumers are going to switch? Of course not. As with all retail shopping, the customer experience is key, and since other retailers find that online shopping still can’t compete when it comes to that (and therefore a desire to shop at a physical location remains), it is pretty safe to assume that it will be no different for CPG. All of this being said, it does mean a further rise in competition, one that will need to be met head on.

Are you ready to compete? Storesupport has the strategies to make you more competitive, even when it comes to online grocery shopping. Call us today at 1 877 421 5081.