As online grocery surges, brick-and-mortar still resonates with shoppers

While online grocery has taken huge leaps in shopper adoption — much of that spurred on by the now two-year-old COVIID pandemic — the vast majority of the country’s grocery shoppers still do all or most of their shopping in person and they’re visiting more than one retailer to fill their needs, according to an Advantage Sales survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults who do at least half of their household’s grocery shopping.

In fact, nearly nine in 10 households do most or all of their grocery shopping in person, according to the report, “What Brick-and-Mortar Grocery Shoppers Really Want.”  Advantage Sales is a division of Advantage Solutions, a provider of outsourced sales and marketing solutions to consumer goods companies and retailers.

Despite that overall affinity for brick-and-mortar, customers are increasingly embracing retailers’ omnichannel offerings. “In this age of unified commerce, where shoppers assess a retail experience by their blended digital and physical experience, chief grocery shoppers who buy in person said they want the same specials offered in stores and online, digital coupons for use in brick-and-mortar locations and in-store product sampling,” said the report.

“Even as grocery retailers invest in their online platforms and faster delivery,” the Advantage Sales report noted, “the country’s primary grocery shoppers are looking for a clean, easy-to-shop in-store experience, one that aligns with their digital experience and satisfies their desire for a wide variety of products sold at everyday low prices.”

Related:Regular online grocery users drive supermarket e-commerce sales

Click on the slideshow for in-depth data from the report.