The Evolution of the Grocery Customer

Retailers are quickly deploying digital functionalities to make online shopping frictionless.

Source: Mercatus

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*CAGR for Digital Grocery 2020-2025 was computed using a custom causal regression algorithm, taking the following as inputs:
1. Overall Grocery sales (historic) and projected growth
2. Historic share and growth of online grocery
3. Incremental sales of online grocery and growth post SIP
4. Consumer preferences, by demographic band
5. Demographic mix
6. Digital maturity of grocery retailers: Current, projected and potential challenges

Projection: Growth of online grocery will slow in the immediate term, as shoppers return to stores due to reduced concern for COVID-19 risks. Retailers will be required to invest both in technology and re-alignment of operating models (store labor, forward deployment etc.) to improve customer experience and drive the next wave of growth, while ensuring profitability. Growth is expected to pick-up again in early 2022.

As of 2020, eGrocery faces a new reality: accelerated growth, well beyond pre-pandemic estimates.

In fact, findings from our new report conducted in collaboration with Incisiv, eGrocery’s New Reality: The Pandemic’s Lasting Impact on U.S. Grocery Shopping Behavior, project that online grocery will account for 21.5% of total grocery sales by 2025 – an estimated $250 billion- which is a more than 60% increase over pre-pandemic estimates.

With eGrocery adoption seeing unprecedented growth, grocery retailers have encountered new challenges and an influx of new online grocery competitors. How can retailers protect and grow their eGrocery market share going forward?

Download the report to discover the drivers of online grocery success, including:

Key factors that impact shopper loyalty online
Features and services that are most important to shoppers
Motivations for increased eGrocery adoption across demographics
Examples of successful online grocery solutions implemented by grocers today

“The growth of online grocery in 2020 and its predicted long-term impact, coupled with customers’ continued loyalty to brick and mortar, makes it clear that these avenues must complement each other in creating a great customer experience across a grocer’s entire brand. In order to round out the loyalty to online channels, this data makes it clear that brands should make investments in digital functionality, especially regarding product search, discovery and product information.”

- Sylvain Perrier, President & CEO, Mercatus

Mercatus is committed to helping grocery retailers to operate and control their own eCommerce experience, with a highly profitable customer-centric growth strategy. Empowering grocers to adapt to today’s changing consumer demands with an end-to-end enterprise-grade SaaS platform.