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Food shopping habits are quickly changing

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As recently as last August, online grocery shopping seemed destined to remain a niche pursuit in the United States.

A Gallup survey released at the time found that just 4% of Americans said they shop online for groceries on a weekly basis, while only 9% did so at least once a month. That compares to nearly all Americans who said that someone in their household shops for groceries in a store at least once a month, and 83% who said they did so once a week.

But recent studies suggest that Americans may be warming to the idea of doing their grocery shopping online.

Packaged Facts estimated in November that while online grocery shopping accounted for barely 1% of the amount of money Americans spent on food and beverages in 2014, that market share is projected to reach double digits and online grocery sales are expected to triple by 2022.

That view was validated at last month’s Food Marketing Institute Midwinter Executive Conference, by a joint research project by FMI and Nielsen that said online food and beverage sales are expected to reach $100 billion by 2022 to 2024.

In the first phase of the research project, whose results were released last year, it was predicted that online food and beverage sales wouldn’t hit the $100 billion mark until 2025.

That accelerated growth rate is good news for Amazon.com, which is helping to drive it. The Packaged Facts study found that Amazon captured an industry-leading 18% of online food and beverage sales in the United States in 2017. Amazon’s share is double the 9% held by second-place Walmart in the e-tail grocery market.

Meanwhile, Amazon recently announced that it would offer free, two-hour delivery of selected products from Whole Foods Markets — including fresh produce, meat and seafood — through its Prime Now service. The new service initially will be available in three markets, but Amazon plans to roll it out. The move shows that Amazon will continue to be aggressive in bringing online grocery shopping into the mainstream. Other retailers can’t afford to be any less aggressive.


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