| E-commerce |
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| Online goods and services |
| Retail services |
| Marketplace services |
| Mobile commerce |
| Customer service |
| E-procurement |
| Purchase-to-pay |
| Super-apps |
An online grocer is a supermarket or grocery store that allows ordering via websites or mobile apps. [1] The order can either be collected by the customer or delivered to the customer by drivers engaged by the grocer, a food delivery service, or by delivery drones and robots. [2]
For brick-and-mortar stores that have online ordering, customers can place orders online and pick up their ready orders in the store on their way home. In-store pickup—sometimes termed "click & collect"—is typically offered for same-day shopping. It is usually less expensive than delivery, and can be done at a time of the customer's choosing. This option is popular in rural areas. It is also useful for customers living outside of the store's local delivery area.
Most local online grocers have their own drivers. The most common type of personal delivery involves storing grocery inventory in a warehouse to deliver to customers once orders are placed. Another type of personal delivery which is less common is based on just-in-time business in which there is no warehouse or inventory. In this type of delivery, customers place orders for next-day delivery. The online grocer shops for the groceries on the morning of the delivery day.
Some grocery fulfilment centres are set up as dark stores. Online-only grocers typically have warehouses or distribution centers nearby, to allow local shipping of refrigerated items.
Online grocers with a large regional or national delivery area may ship groceries using courier services. If the order contains cold or frozen items, this involves "flash freezing" the goods and pack them into special shipping containers.[ citation needed ]
Companies have experimented with automated delivery modes including drone delivery and robots. For instance, in Fall 2016 Washington, D.C. approved a trial run of rolling delivery drones produced by Starship Technologies. The earthbound robots are similar to wheeled coolers and carry around 40 pounds of groceries. [3]
The online grocer technology platform could be developed in-house, or a third party's platform could be re-used and customized to reflect the company brand and provide unique features. In some cases, all management and support tasks are being outsourced to the platform provider.
In the United States, in 2017, Amazon.com sold $2 billion worth of groceries online. It had the largest market share, 18%, followed by Walmart. [4] Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market to help accelerate growth efforts in the online grocery sector. [5] Other companies with substantial market share in the US are Target and Instacart. [6]
The value of the US online grocery market grew from $12 billion in 2016 to $26 billion in 2018 and it has plenty of room to grow, given that the size of the overall grocery market was $632 billion in 2018 according to IBISWorld. [7]
Online grocery shopping grew substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. [8] The COVID-19 pandemic greatly accelerated the growth of online grocers, and in the first few months of the pandemic, online grocery shopping increased by 300%. [9] In addition, first-time online grocery shoppers accounted for 41% of online grocery shoppers. [10] COVID-19 hastened the uptake of online grocery shopping. Pre-COVID-19 food shopping activity accounted for 9% of the market, but 63 percent of consumers worldwide purchased more groceries online after the outbreak than they did before they were socially isolated. [11]
In the United States in 2022, 47% of people used online grocers, including 2% of people who used online grocers as their exclusive grocery provider. [12] The market size in the U.S. in 2022 was $42.8 billion. [13] Walmart was the largest online grocer in the US that year with 27.6% of market share, followed by Amazon.com / Whole Foods Market at 21% and Kroger at 10%. [14]
Online grocery stores may allow facilitating local food which may reduce the environmental impact of food transport. Small-scale farmers have been embracing digital technologies as a way to directly sell produce, and community-supported agriculture and direct-sell delivery systems are on the rise during the coronavirus pandemic. [15] Furthermore, weekly grocery deliveries can be a better choice than individual trips to a store. [16]
Some online grocery stores have a goal of supporting the production and sale of fresh, organic, locally grown, sustainable foods. [17]
The biggest advantage that online grocers have vis-a-vis brick-and-mortar store is more accurate data. Online grocers can use AI and machine-learning models to provide a more personalized experience for their customers. There are four main ways to utilize data for online grocers: creating smart shopping lists, personalizing discounts, personalizing the way items are shown to users, and providing contextualized recommendations. [18] All these are intended to increase up-selling and cross-selling options as well as increase the customer's lifetime value.
A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or big-box market. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is often used to mean "supermarket".
A grocery store (AE), grocery shop (BE) or simply grocery is a foodservice retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, and is not used to refer to other types of stores that sell groceries. In the UK, shops that sell food are distinguished as grocers or grocery shops.
Loblaw Companies Limited is a Canadian retailer encompassing corporate and franchise supermarkets operating under 22 regional and market-segment banners, as well as pharmacies, banking and apparel. Loblaw operates a private label program that includes grocery and household items, clothing, baby products, pharmaceuticals, cellular phones, general merchandise and financial services. Loblaw is the largest Canadian food retailer, and its brands include President's Choice, No Name and Joe Fresh. It is controlled by George Weston Limited, a holding company controlled by the Weston family; Galen G. Weston, is the chair of the Loblaw board of directors, as well as chair of the board of directors and CEO of Canada-based holding company George Weston.
Sobeys Inc. is the second largest supermarket chain in Canada after Loblaw Companies Limited, with over 1,500 stores operating across Canada under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than C$25.1 billion in the fiscal 2019 operating year. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited, a Canadian business conglomerate.
The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.
Publix Super Markets, Inc., commonly known as Publix, is an employee-owned American supermarket chain headquartered in Lakeland, Florida. Founded in 1930 by George W. Jenkins, Publix is a private corporation that is wholly owned by present and past employees and members of the Jenkins family. Publix operates throughout the Southeastern United States, with locations in Florida (858), Georgia (207), Alabama (88), South Carolina (69), Tennessee (55), North Carolina (53), and Virginia (19).
Raley's Supermarkets is an independent, family-owned American grocery and retail technology company headquartered in West Sacramento, California. Raley's was founded in 1935 by Thomas P. Raley in Placerville, California.
Peapod Online Grocer (US), LLC is an American online grocery delivery service. By February 2022, it changed its name to Peapod Digital Labs.
Woolworths Supermarkets is an Australian chain of supermarkets and grocery stores owned by Woolworths Group. Founded in 1924, Woolworths today is Australia's biggest supermarket chain with a market share of 33% as of 2019.
The Giant Company is an American regional supermarket chain that operates in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia under the Giant and Martin's brands. It is a subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize, and headquartered in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. As of September 2020, the company operated 190 stores, 133 pharmacies, 105 fuel stations; the chain also provides online shopping and delivery to New Jersey through Giant Direct.
Giant Food of Maryland, LLC is an American regional supermarket chain with 165 stores located in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. It is a subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize, and headquartered in unincorporated Prince George's County, Maryland, near Landover.
Sedano's Supermarkets is the nation's largest Hispanic retailer and largest Hispanic-owned supermarket chain. With headquarters in Miami-Dade County. Sedano's employs approximately 3,000 associates and operates 35 stores across Florida in Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, and Osceola counties. Sedano's is also the largest member of Associated Grocers of Florida, a wholesale grocery food cooperative. In 2020, Sedano's Supermarkets was named Food and Wine’s 20 Best Regional Supermarket Chains of All Time.
Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc., commonly known as Longo's, is a Canadian chain of retail supermarkets and grocery delivery service that serves the Southern Ontario area. It is controlled by Sobeys parent Empire Company in partnership with the founding Longo family. Its corporate office is located in Vaughan, Ontario, and it operates locations mainly in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
Co-op Food is a brand used for the food retail business of The Co-operative Group in the United Kingdom.
Amazon Fresh is a subsidiary of the American e-commerce company Amazon in Seattle, Washington. It is a grocery retailer with physical stores and delivery services in most major U.S. cities, as well as some international cities, such as Berlin, Hamburg, London, Milan, Munich, Rome, Tokyo, and some other locations in Singapore and India.
The term dark store, dark shop, dark supermarket or dotcom centre refers to a retail outlet or distribution centre that exists exclusively for online shopping. A dark store is generally a large warehouse that can either be used to facilitate a "click-and-collect" service, where a customer collects an item they have ordered online, or as an order fulfillment platform for online sales. The format was initiated in the United Kingdom, and its popularity has also spread to France followed by the rest of the European Union and Russia, as well as to the United States.
Freshlocal Solutions Inc. is an online grocer, wholesale distributor, store operator and software licensing company based in Vancouver. The company was founded as Small Potatoes Urban Delivery in 1997. In September 2021 Freshlocal went under new executive leadership which resulted in key leadership changeover and in May 2022 it filed for bankruptcy protection.
Maplebear Inc., doing business as Instacart, is an American delivery company based in San Francisco that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the United States and Canada accessible via a website and mobile app. It allows customers to order groceries from participating retailers with the shopping being done by a personal shopper. The company also provides alcohol delivery in states and provinces where it is allowed. It has partnerships with 1,400 retail banners comprising 80,000 stores. In 2022, it fulfilled 262.6 million orders with a total transaction value of $28.8 billion and an average transaction value of $110.
Retail food delivery is a courier service in which a restaurant, store, or independent food-delivery company delivers food to a customer. An order is typically made either through a restaurant or grocer's website or mobile app, or through a food ordering company. The delivered items can include entrees, sides, drinks, desserts, or grocery items and are typically delivered in boxes or bags. The delivery person will normally drive a car, but in bigger cities where homes and restaurants are closer together, they may use bikes or motorized scooters.
A meal kit is a subscription service–foodservice business model where a company sends customers pre-portioned and sometimes partially-prepared food ingredients and recipes to prepare home-cooked meals. Services that send pre-cooked meals are called meal delivery services. This subscription model has been cited as an example of the personalization of the food and beverage industry.
Online food ordering services | |
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| Meal delivery | |
| Meal kits | |
| Online grocery delivery | |
| Reservations | |
| Defunct | |
| Software | |
