Dive Brief:
Amazon Go stores are a fraction of the size of a Walmart Supercenter or Kroger, but 59% of U.S. shoppers see them as a threat to major grocers, according to new survey findings from research platform Piplsay. The nationwide survey, which was conducted between Feb. 19 to Feb. 21, garnered more than 30,000 responses.
While only 28% of respondents said they had gone to an Amazon Go, most of them said their visit was a positive experience, with 54% saying it was excellent and 35% calling it good.
Based on consumer responses, Amazon Go-like cashierless convenience stores are likely to meet strong shopper demand. More than half of those surveyed (57%) said they would like to see an Amazon Go or similar tech-enabled store near them and 54% believe those types of stores will succeed even as grocery e-commerce continues to grow.
Closing the performance gap is important because retailers risk losing entire orders and customers, as the vast majority don’t use both pickup and delivery.
As grocery e-commerce surged throughout 2020, Americans reaffirmed a preference for curbside pickup over delivery. Households tend to favor grocery pickup because it costs less than delivery and, in theory, they have more control over when their order is received.
However, satisfaction with pickup has lagged delivery in two key areas that affect the overall shopping experience: selecting a time slot and receiving the order. Food retailers have an opportunity to improve both this year.
Selecting a Time Slot
U.S. E-Grocery Sales Hit $9.3B in January
February 23, 2021
As consumer dollars keep shifting online generally in the pandemic, e-grocery in the U.S. continues to explode, hitting a high of $9.3 billion in January, up 15% from the last time it was tracked in November, according to a survey conducted by Brick Meet Click/Mercatus.
Home delivery by services like Instacart, DoorDash and Shipt, and store/curbside pickup, saw the lion’s share of the spending, representing $7.1 billion or 77% of the total, compared to $2.2 billion or 23% for ship to home by traditional services like FedEx and UPS. Over three-fourths of monthly active users – 78% – took advantage of home delivery or pickup in January, up from 64% in November.