Target Bests Walmart and Kroger for Seamless Grocery Experience: Study

In an evaluation of how well three leading national retailers deliver a seamless grocery shopping experience, Barrington, Ill.-based Brick Meets Click found Target beating out both Walmart’s and Kroger’s respective omnichannel platforms.

“If the goal of omnichannel is to enable shopping from anywhere, for anything, and any way a customer wants, then the seamless shopping rating highlights progress and opportunities against that goal,” said David Bishop, partner with Brick Meets Click (BMC), in a statement. “And for seamless shopping to have a positive impact on a retailer’s results, customers must have access to the solutions, be attracted to the perceived benefits and enjoy better outcomes from using these solutions.”

Minneapolis-based Target scored the highest composite rating (3.4 out of 5) in BMC’s analysis, which Bishop says reflects its superiority ahead of both Kroger (2.8 out of 5) and Walmart (2.3 out of 5) for providing digital solutions that improve the shopping experience, regardless of whether it’s in-store or online.

Retailers’ composite ratings reflect each of their to-date performance with delivering a seamless grocery shopping experience for shoppers across multiple factors measured by BMC in three areas:

Accessibility: What share of the retailer’s customers have access to the full menu of the retailer’s shopping tools and services? “Target is further along with rolling out its various online shopping options, which in turn encourages increased penetration and usage of its mobile app and the features it offers that also benefits in-store shopping,” according to BMC.

Attractiveness: Are the perceived benefits of the tools and services strong enough to convert interest into trial? “Target slightly trails Kroger on this component, mainly because customers are not able to buy frozen or refrigerated products via Target’s store pickup services,” BMC said. Otherwise, all three retailers have opportunities to integrate shopping solutions into a single app.

Acceptability: Do the solutions improve customer outcomes across the shopping experience? In terms of finding products, BMC said, “Target is doing a better job via its search and in-store navigation capabilities,” and is also helping customers consider their choices based on ratings, reviews and visibility into in-store inventory levels. Further, while all three national chains can improve the checkout process via scan-and-go capabilities, Target also has an edge with a more customer-friendly set of tools at present.

“Although seamless shopping is an evolving concept, retailers of all sizes could benefit from applying this framework to understand how they’re performing and where they should focus more resources to generate stronger results,” said Bishop, adding that composite scorecard ratings for Target, Kroger and Walmart reflect the relative importance that each component plays in achieving a seamless shopping experience. 

Click here to view an expanded scorecard that shows how each retailer performed against the three components of accessibility, attractiveness and acceptability, and to learn more.