Product selection, mobile app optimization are key to digital grocery success
As the digital grocery landscape grows more crowded, retailers must meet consumers' expectations around product selection, mobile app features, and fulfillment.
“Digital grocery is no longer an emerging category,” said our analyst Blake Droesch. “It’s grown really fast over the last couple of years, and the market is pretty mature at this point.”
Grocery is now the second-largest ecommerce category we track in the US, behind apparel, footwear, and accessories.
- The average digital grocery buyer will spend $1,425 in 2025, a figure that will climb through 2028.
- US digital grocery sales will reach $220.48 billion in 2025, a 8.3% increase YoY, per our forecast.
- Sales will climb through 2028, but growth rates are slowing.
Here are three ways retailers can stay competitive, according to our Digital Grocery Opportunity report.
1. Improve product selection
Robust product selection and freshness are critical to digital grocery success, according to Droesch.
“It may be basic, but it’s important to make sure your product selection and quality is up to par,” he said. “And this applies in-store and in warehouses. If the food isn’t fresh, the end buyer isn’t going to care where it came from, just that the experience was bad.”
Retailers can use AI and data analytics to optimize demand forecasting, ensuring the food freshness and avoiding out-of-stocks.
“Out-of-stock items are a big pain point in digital grocery,” said Droesch. “If you’re not in the store, you don’t have control over picking an alternate product.”
2. Optimize the mobile app and loyalty experience
“The best thing retailers can do to be proactive is invest in tools and features within their mobile apps that are geared toward grocery shopping,” said Droesch.
- This includes easy reordering, order tracking, and customer service tracking.
- “That gives the customer more control and helps resolve any communication hiccups,” he said.
Retailers can also use their apps to offer digital coupons and gamified features to make shopping more affordable and engaging.
3. Expand fulfillment services
Not all consumers shop for groceries the same way.
“For example, a shopper could order their weekly groceries on Instacart, their dry goods from Amazon, and then use click-and-collect if they need to pick something up on their way home,” said Droesch.
- By partnering with shipping carriers and third-party delivery services, retailers ensure customers receive their deliveries when and how they want.
- Retailers can improve the click-and-collect experience by adding more communication tools like text message notifications and GPS integration.
Apart from driving sales, digital grocery also boosts customer loyalty.
- Online grocery shopping is a very frequent occurrence for many consumers—41.4% of US shoppers purchase food and beverages online at least once per week, according to a July EMARKETER survey.
- “Grocery is a very frequent touchpoint, so if you want to solidify customer loyalty, you want your customer to be a grocery customer,” said Droesch.
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