The supermarket guide to online grocery competition

This important report – which offers the first evidence-based assessment of the competitive landscape for online grocery – will help supermarket management teams effectively and successfully navigate the opportunities and challenges found in this space.

Based on surveys with 12,000 digitally connected grocery shoppers in three metropolitan areas across the US, it shows that the primary online competitive threat supermarkets face today doesn’t come from direct competitors like Peapod that are trying to win the customer away, but rather from “BasketBandit” sites that siphon off sales, generating a steady stream of sales leakage.

Key Findings include:

• Basket Bandit sites capture 84% of all online grocery trips. They include Amazon, a wide range of online-only retailers like Blue Apron, ThriveMarket.com, Drugstore.com, Chewy.com, etc., and the online “stores”of mass and club retailers.
• The dominant player in online grocery is already Amazon, even with AmazonFresh in limited roll-out.
• Since 2013, the percentage of shoppers that have bought groceries from Amazon in the past 30 days has gone up 25% – it now captures nearly half of all trips.
• There is good news for supermarkets: In markets where supermarkets have established well-developed online grocery offerings,they can win a significant share of the online business.