A new report predicts a holiday grocery shopping season that will be more omnichannel than ever before, with 83% of shoppers planning to use grocers’ online stores and apps, 78% of shoppers reporting that they will buy both in-store and digitally for the upcoming holiday season, and 21% planning to buy the majority of their holiday groceries online.
The report comes via Grocery Doppio, via a partnership with insights firm Incisiv and digital commerce and fulfillment solutions company Wynshop. The report was built around data analysis of 2.1 million shopper orders and aggregated survey results from more than 38,113 shoppers and 3,611 U.S. grocery executives.
According to the report, this is the breakdown in terms of how grocers say they are investing in preparedness for an omnichannel holiday season:
- Online stress testing/optimization (86%)
- Increasing digital promotions and discounts (77%)
- Expanding delivery and pickup options (74%)
- Improving inventory visibility options (69%)
- Personalized offers (47%)
Other key findings include:
Pickup has emerged as the fulfillment channel of choice
- Some 52.3% of all digital grocery orders were fulfilled by pickup in October 2023, representing an 8.2% increase over September pickup orders
- Some 62% of shoppers intend to do even more pickup orders over the holidays than they normally do
Digital grocery sales regained momentum, while third-party sales continued to slump
- October digital grocery sales were $11 billion in October, representing 13.2% of total grocery sales; This was a 6.8% increase over September, and the highest level in six months that digital grocery has achieved
- Third party platform market share dropped to 15.6%, the second time below 16% in 2023, and the lowest level of market share in the past 48 months
