We live in an exciting new world of smart phones, social media and online shopping, which are transforming our retail landscape and opening up new ways to reach out to consumers.
Empowering consumers with the means to control the way they shop offers them convenience and for retailers it is an opportunity to drive more sales. Multi-channel retailing is allowing consumers unlimited shopping capacity without the hassle of time or location restrictions. It enables consumers to shop from home, the office or even on-the-go with mobile commerce and choices of personal delivery or instore collection.
But all this does not mean the end of the corner grocery store as we know it – at least not in the foreseeable future, if you ask me. As a keen foodie and passionate cook I like to see, smell and touch the fresh fruit and veges I buy every week. It’s how I know I am selecting the best possible product with maximum freshness.
However, it appears that many shoppers are quite happy to purchase their groceries online and don’t mind other people fondling their fruit for them. New reports are emerging that suggest online grocery sales could double within five years. Research group IGD forecasts that Britain’s internet grocery market will double to £9.9 billion by 2015. We live in an increasingly time poor world, so this prediction does not come as a surprise.
IGD said sales online continue to grow at a faster rate than any other sector in the grocery market, with growth of 21.4% in 2010 to £4.8bn. Morrisons became the latest supermarket to make a move into online sales in the UK.
One in four food and grocery manufacturers is considering creating its own e-store, found the IGD’s ‘Online grocery retailing – Building capability for a digital future’ report. And in the UK 43% of manufacturers anticipate more than 10% of their total revenue to come from online sales by 2015.
The online grocery market, which accounted for 3.2% of total grocery spend in the UK last year, is projected to increase to 5.4% by 2015, IGD said.
If you are involved with mobile commerce or developing an online shopping option for your business, then I would love to hear from you!
Tamara Rubanowski, editor@fmcg.co.nz
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