Supermarkets beat Amazon in online basket

Supermarkets are more successful in the online groceries market than Amazon: in the United States, customers at regular supermarkets place more and larger orders than Amazon shoppers do.

More often and higher amounts

Amazon may be leading the online groceries industry in the United States, but customers at regular supermarkets with e-commerce options such as click & collect or home delivery, order online more often: Amazon customers order on average 1.6 times per month whereas supermarket shoppers order 1.9 times per month.

The average amount is also larger: 46 dollars per order at Amazon compared to 105 dollars at the supermarkets. Customers using their supermarket’s delivery and pickup services end up spending 200 dollars per month compared to only 74 dollars at Amazon, according to the calculations of consultancy firm Brick Meets Click.

Far from a real online supermarket

Research by UBS reveals more: compared to last year, there were fewer Amazon Prime members in 2018 who used the platform at least once a month for grocery shopping. Customers seem to be using the service mostly to bulk up on supplies such as bottled water, snacks and coffee pads, but Amazon is still far removed from the dream of delivering full grocery baskets at people’s homes, according to the analysis of Grocery Dive.

Amazon Fresh is still struggling to grow: last year, the plug was pulled in a large number of markets. Amazon is said to be consulting manufacturers to come up with a way to reduce the number of small, unprofitable orders, for example by increasing the size of packagings. The difficulties are somewhat surprising, since the acquisition of Whole Foods was supposed to have the opposite effect and bring Amazon closer to retail.

Supermarkets that offer both home delivery and the option to pick up items at the store, can expect growth between 25 % and 30 % next year. By contrast, the online grocery market as a whole only expects 15 % growth. Omnichannel supermarkets have a major advantage in that their digital involvement seems to strengthen customer loyalty and increase turnover both online and in the physical stores. Yael Cosset, chief digital officer at Kroger, recently remarked that buyers who use Kroger’s pickup and delivery services end up spending more in total.