Online Grocery Store: Benefits and Future Trends

Updated 12 Dec 2023
Published 27 Oct 2023
Nancy Bhargava 2689 Views
Benefits of an Online Grocery Store

Grocery is one of the top requirements in the kitchen of every household, and technology enables us to purchase it at ease via accessing online grocery stores.

Apps like Instacart, Kroger, Amazon Fresh, or FreshDirect are known to almost all of us. The only reason behind their popularity is that we can access them anytime to order the required grocery items. These apps have been in trend since the pandemic, and businesses are leveraging this trend.

If you are also interested in launching your grocery business online, you should also know the benefits of an online grocery store.

Discover the hidden benefits of online grocery stores for your business right here.

Before you dive into the next sections, let’s take a look at some key grocery store industry statistics to give you a clear understanding of the landscape.

Online Grocery Delivery and Ordering: Key Statistics

  • The grocery delivery market’s revenue is expected to reach $627.30 billion by 2023.
  • For 2027, the projected market volume is $1,140 billion.
  • The grocery delivery market’s ARPU (average revenue per user) is forecasted to reach $449 in 2023.
  • Most shoppers spend an average of 44 minutes shopping for groceries at the store and, on average, visit grocery stores 8 times/month
  • Food and beverage online sales are 15.67% (2023) out of total retail e-commerce sales in the United States. By 2027, it is expected to be 21.5%.
  • Convenience is the top-notch reason to shop for groceries online for 45% of users out of total online grocery shoppers.
  • 51% of online grocery shoppers prefer home delivery, and 49% of shoppers prefer in-store pickup.
  • Walmart is a key player (30% share) in US online grocery sales.

Online Grocery Delivery and Ordering Market Size and Statistics

Now, you have an idea that the online grocery delivery and ordering industry is in full swing. Online grocery delivery is beneficial for users and businesses in all terms.

It will be clearer in the upcoming sections of this blog. So, let’s start with the benefits.

Advantages of an Online Grocery Store

The grocery retailing landscape is rapidly changing, and customers are migrating from offline to online grocery shopping. Online grocery sales are expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.7% over the next five years (Brick Meets Click). It reflects good growth.

So, the prime benefit of having an online store for the business is ample growth. It is not only a single benefit; there are others that also exist. Here are these:

Advantages of Online Grocery Store for Business

#1. Bring Value to the Business 

Through an offering consisting of product pricing, a variety of products, and accurate products, you can improve the credibility of your business.

With an online grocery store, you can provide a personalized experience of grocery shopping where, within minutes, the customers can order their complete list instead of spending an hour collecting the stuff and waiting for its billing at the counter. It will bring value to your business.

online grocery store software

#2. Expand Your Business Like Never Before 

If you are looking to expand your business in less time, then the best way is to develop a grocery platform for your business where customers can buy groceries at any time.

It is already mentioned that more than 50–51% of shoppers prefer online grocery shopping only for convenience. With your online grocery shop, they will have a new option to shop, which will be helpful to expand your business.

#3. Convenience for the Vendors 

If you are working with the vendors, then you know more about how hectic it is to handle their requests. But with a hyperlocal grocery marketplace, most of the challenges get resolved as vendors will have their own dedicated panels.

They can handle it with ease, from updating inventory to uploading the product image description, setting up the price, earnings management, and more.

Even with an online grocery marketplace, you can add new vendors seamlessly. Vendors can use grocery inventory management software to automate and streamline their inventory processes, improve accuracy, and reduce costs.

#4. Brand Promotion 

An online grocery store will unlock multiple methods to promote your business online. The best example is using in-built social media promotion tools; you can promote your store on various social media channels.

Another best use case is that you can create multiple offers, discounts, and deals to attract customers. Although it is a partial technique to promote the brand, it works, and multiple businesses are leveraging it.

#5. Easy Start 

How good will it be if you do not need to buy or rent a physical space to start an online grocery store? Yes, it is true that customers only need to order groceries at their convenience and get them delivered to their doorstep at the desired time.

They do not bother about where groceries are getting delivered from. You can start your online grocery business from a home location or from an unknown location to the customer.

You also do not need to stock the items; you can deliver them directly to the customers via drop shipping. An online grocery store requires less investment compared to a brick-and-mortar location.

#6. Variety of Options at a Single Place

One of the biggest advantages of creating an online grocery store is that you can make a wide range of products available at a single point.

The retailers can add multiple products as much as they can and create a range of bestseller products. When customers find out the availability of their desired product, they will automatically connect with your online grocery store.

#7. Seamless Payment Management 

There will be no headache of changes or spending the time to manage the cash at the counter. With an online store, you will have everything at your fingertips.

There are multiple payment methods by which you can receive payments directly to your account, such as net banking, credit card, debit card, e-wallet, and others. Within a single tap, you will have all the details of payments on your screen.

#8. Enhance Customer Engagement and Service 

Grocery delivery app development can help you make your customer’s purchase journey smooth. For example, integrating AI-powered chatbots can help them get quick information regarding the product or services, or you can leverage AI-ML to recommend the products based on their past purchase history.

It will help you enhance customer engagement to a greater level.

#9. Stay on top of Emerging Trends and Technology

The market competition is getting tougher day by day, so you need to adapt to the new technologies and trends to stay on top among your competitors.

Using the latest technologies, you can exceed the expectations of your customers, as most of them prefer seamless experiences such as powered product search, price comparison, click-and-collect shipping, or others. All of these can help you meet your target audience’s needs.

#10. Data Collection  

For business growth, strategic planning is a must, and data plays an important role in it. The grocery e-commerce website or app is beneficial in all terms of studying the behavior of customers.

It works like a grocery delivery platform, containing customer data that you can collect and analyze to make a fine business strategy.

You can research data like products purchased frequently, preferred payment methods used by multiple customers, and others. It will help you develop strategies to grow your business.

Online Grocery Shopping: Future Trends to Consider

The traditional ways were dismantled after Pandemic-19, and the retail sector got the maximum hit. Most people adopted online grocery delivery methods to get their groceries on demand.

On the other hand, businesses adopted new ways to operate seamlessly, such as preferring online grocery software solutions or offering an on-demand grocery delivery app to customers.

So, it would be best to know about trends ruling over the market, which you need to consider for your business.

Online Grocery Delivery Trends for your Business

  • On-Demand Grocery Delivery 

In terms of getting on-demand grocery delivery, the choice of all customers globally is almost the same, as they need instant delivery.

So, if you are planning to start your business with an online grocery store, then plan carefully about the delivery mechanism.

  • Rise of AI-Powered Grocery Delivery Platform  

AI is progressing more than we thought, and now its adoption is rapid. If you are looking for the future trends of grocery delivery, then in the upcoming years, there will be grocery eCommerce platforms that have automated inventory features, demand forecast mechanisms, automated supply chain operations, and more.

Here, you can start with an accurate product recommendation feature.

  • Voice-enabled Apps

It is ultimate fun to request Alexa to play a favorite song. What if you have an app compatible with voice-enabled smart devices where, with a voice command, you can add multiple items to your grocery shopping cart? Some of the best examples are:

  1. Carrefour and Google have already launched voice-enabled grocery shopping.
  2. Walmart also launched voice-enabled grocery shopping.

It has already been done, and more advancement is going on. Voice is the future of grocery shopping. So, it would also be best to consider it while going for grocery delivery app development for business.

  • Drone Deliveries 

Although drone deliveries are in a testing phase, they will happen very soon. The key advantage of drone delivery is that customer’s parcels will not get delayed due to traffic, and they will have instant delivery.

It looks like the most futuristic trend, but it will be possible very soon. Do not be surprised, as Amazon has started it.

  • Payment Methods 

Most grocery delivery software or web and mobile apps are equipped with a variety of payment methods, such as net banking, debit cards, credit cards, e-wallets, and more.

Due to the influence of cryptocurrency, multiple brands have adopted it, such as Starbucks, Chipotle, Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub. Businesses can also integrate different types of e-wallets into their grocery software for seamless transactions.

grocery delivery software development

Final Thoughts 

Online grocery delivery and ordering are trending, and based on the survey and consultation done by Strategy, the common findings related to millennial customers are:

  • Omni-channel experience
  • One-stop grocery shopping
  • Instant delivery
  • Flawless availability and variety
  • Diverse payment options
  • Presence over all online platforms, from the web to mobile (iOS, Android)

You can target all these touch points via an online grocery store. Now, you are aware of the benefits that you can have with grocery delivery software or an app. It is the right time to invest in it for your business.

As a grocery and food delivery app development company, we are here to assist you with all your queries. We would be happy to provide you with an answer if you have any specific queries.

Nancy Bhargava

Nancy works as an IT consulting professional with Arka Softwares. She has an in-depth knowledge of trending tech and consumer affairs. She loves to put her observations and insights of the industry to reveal interesting stories prompting the latest domain practice and trends.

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