While online grocery sales have spiked in Europe, Canadian retailers are struggling to engage consumers with the new service.
According to Forrester Research, Canada’s online grocery shopping market is expected to grow to sales of $3.6 billion per year by 2019. However, Suthamie Poologasingham, a consultant from J.C. Williams group noted at Toronto’s Grocery Innovations Canada conference that the market is currently at less than $2 billion.
“Canadian retailers are still very much in a stage of testing and trying to figure out the cost infrastructure,” she said, adding that retailers must get consumers comfortable with the new service.
With giants like Loblaws, Walmart and Grocery Gateway offering these services, independent retailers may feel pressured to release similar programs. However, Canadian shoppers that buy their groceries online spend just four per cent of their food budgets their, buying everything else in store, added Poologasingham.
She noted that this is because in Canada, some prejudices about online shopping remain. Canadians are unsure about product quality when it comes to online orders, and may also find shipping costs too high.
Before rolling out one of these expensive services, perhaps poll your customers to determine interest. Online grocery may or may not be worth your time, money and efforts.
