Online Grocery Shopping And Pickup Is Most Popular In The US
American grocery stores are leading the way in making pickup quick and easy, whether it’s in-store or from the comfort of a customer’s car. This is because they use the channel more than other countries.
The “2023 Global Digital Shopping Index,” which looked at consumer panels from six countries and more than 13,000 people, found that pickup is on the rise all over the world and in all types of businesses. In all the places where people were polled, the number of people who picked up their most recent online order in a store or at the curb rose from 21% in 2021 to 26% in 2022.
Also, the rise was even more dramatic in the United States. This number went from 23% to 32%, making the country the leader in the number of people who use pickup channels.
Also, grocery pickup is more popular than in other retail categories. Survey of more than 2,600 U.S. consumers for “The Gender Divide Edition,” and they found that 45% of men and 36% of women buy groceries online for curbside pickup. For in-store pickup, 43% of men and 30% of women do the same.
Both established grocery stores and new businesses are changing their business models to meet this demand. In the first case, big players like Kroger and Walmart have been putting money into making pickup options that are easier and easier to use.
Kroger is the largest grocery store in the United States that only sells groceries. On its most recent earnings call in December, Kroger talked about how its online grocery shopping efforts were going.
“Improving the customer experience is always top of mind for us and Kroger Pickup now offers three-hour pickup lead times at all stores in our network, with as little as one-hour lead time in some areas,” Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen told analysts at the time.
Walmart, which is the biggest grocery store in the world, has been putting a lot of effort into its pickup business as part of a larger plan to drive omnichannel engagement. Each fulfillment method works well with the others. Walmart said on its Q3 earnings call that it plans to put more money into this strategy in the future.
“For a long time, we talked about the value of a store customer plus shopping on eComm how much more valuable that was,” said Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner.
“We see that accelerate when it’s pickup, eCommerce and stores. So going forward, you’ll hear us talk about this more and more as an omni-offer, which is really flexible for the customer.”
On the other hand, some new grocery stores are moving away from omnichannel and focusing on boosting pickup sales. A small number of grocery stores are popping up across the country that only deliver to the curb. In a news release on Thursday, January 26, Addie’s, which calls itself the “first drive-up grocer” on the East Coast, said it had closed a $10.1 million seed funding round to help it grow.
“With our seed funding, we’ve built an end-to-end experience to serve people in and around Norwood in a way that can be replicated in suburbs nationwide,” Addie’s CEO and Co-founder Jim McQuade said in the release.
“We look forward to quickly expanding, offering busy families across the country drive-up grocery convenience without compromise.”
The news comes just a few weeks after JackBe, an Oklahoma grocery store that only sells from the curb, opened its doors. Other grocery stores are trying to get customers who want to pick up their orders in the store. In October, British food delivery company Deliveroo teamed up with Morrisons, the U.K.’s fourth-largest grocery store, to open a grocery store in Central London where online orders could be picked up right away.
As pickup continues to grow in popularity around the world, it’s likely that more store formats and omnichannel initiatives will pop up to help grocers maximize their digital sales and drive engagement across the whole business.
