Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Online Food Shopping to Increase by More than 100%


Shoppers are tired of spending their time shopping in supermarkets, often characterized by long, boring queues. Many families have grown tired of dealing with immense crowds associated with weekend shopping. According to a new industry study, there will be a great move towards shopping for groceries online in the next five years. Currently, there are web groceries offered by Asda, Tesco, Ocado, and Sainsbury’s. Morrisons will soon join the list. Regardless of the fact that it is extremely costly to run home delivery services, the increase in top-up shopping would also benefit small convenience stores.
A further blow to supermarkets is the fact that shopping habits are shifting towards the use of budget chains such as Lidl and Aidi. It has been predicted that shopping in such budget chains will double in the next five years. The research or figures to support such findings were obtained from the Institute for Grocery Distribution (IGD). Joanne Denney-Finch, IGD’s chief executive asserted that the areas to watch include convenience and online stores ,as well as food discounters. The three areas will collectively account for 3 out of 4 pounds of growth in the United Kingdom grocery sector.
With technological advancement and popularity of tablets and smartphones, online shopping has gained huge popularity. Retailers are introducing services that are more flexible and convenient. For example, there are temperature-controlled lockers that allow shoppers to collect their groceries at their own convenience. A cultural move towards shopping ‘little and often’ is also a benefit to convenience stores. Such stores are now providing products that are customized to fit the specific needs of customers or specific locations.

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