Online Shopping Habits: Only 7% of Consumers Think It’s Easier to Buy Groceries Online

• November 24, 2020
• Topics:
  • Consumer Trends
  • COVID-19
  • Digital Merchandising
  • E-Commerce
  • Food Retailing
  • Generation Z
  • Market Intelligence
  • Millenials in the Retail Landscape
  • Online Shopping
  • Retail Industry
  • Retail Intelligence
  • Retail Merchandising
  • Retail News
  • Retail Strategies
  • Retail Technology
  • Storesupport
  • Storesupport Canada
  • Trends in Retail

To truly be successful and deliver great customer experiences, retailers have to understand the buying habits of their customers.

Millennials and Gen Z, in particular, because their behaviours dictate where the retail industry is headed in the future.

The Canadian Consumer Insights 2020 Report, from PwC, shares some great insights into consumer preferences.

Despite the increase in online retail sales, Canadians have yet to fully embrace online grocery services. The report shared that out of the individuals who are currently buying groceries online, just about half of them expect to continue to do so once the restrictions are lifted.

What’s more surprising? 30% of those surveyed shared that they’ll use online grocery services less.

Additionally, those surveyed also said that they had a poor experience with online grocery delivery services during the pandemic. Just 7% of individuals agreed that shopping for groceries online was easier!

Why is this so?

The main reason is that some e-commerce solutions, being deployed in Canada today, still need work. The focus has to be on addressing customer pain points and understanding their expectations.

This is particularly relevant when it comes to younger customers.

Younger customers, for instance, expect the grocery delivery times to be shorter and want the groceries to arrive faster. 68% of Gen Z respondents shared that they would like to receive their purchases within 24 hours of placing the order.

What should you do?

This only heightens the need for grocery retailers to accelerate their response to meet the changing requirements of the customers.

Here are some recommendations:

• Today’s Canadian consumer is keen to buy locally made and environmentally sustainable products. So, it would be helpful to add these labels and information on your e-commerce platforms.
• Many customers, especially younger ones, prefer micro-trips as that helps them get fresher ingredients. So, it may be helpful if you can accommodate the micro-fulfillment of e-commerce orders.
• Contact-free experiences can help customers feel more comfortable with deliveries. This is another aspect that your organization can look into while preparing a curbside pick-up or delivery strategy.

The way forward

As everything is moving online – your e-commerce solutions need to be easy to navigate and meet the requirements of your customers.

In addition to enhancing your web-based e-commerce platforms, also look at optimizing your mobile applications.

At Storesupport, we can not only help you optimize your e-commerce solutions but also help develop fulfillment options that work for you and your customers.

Additionally, with a field team of more than 500 people across Canada, we can also support in-store. Learn more about our ADAPT-able in-store and online merchandising solutions today. Call 1-877-421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.