Crossing The $90 Billion Mark of eGrocery
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009Today with the addition of Peapod to our network we now serve 93 Retailers who do more than $90 Billion dollars in grocery sales. Putting us second to only WalMart in terms of reach and impact. In the last six months alone we have added $46 Billion dollars from partners such as Delhaize, A&P, Big Y, Piggly Wiggly, Roche Brothers, Lunds, and now Peapod.
Why the acceleration? There is no single reason but a convergence of powerful forces that are driving consumers, retailers, and manufacturers to digital solutions:
- Increasing Consumer Usage with 94% of US consumers shopping online and online grocery shopping penetration increasing we now have best in class stores with online sales at 10% of store volume.
- Changing Grocery Market with Non-grocer retailers (e.g. Wal-Mart, Club, Amazon) taking market share retailers are looking to “lock in” and expand their most valuable customers. The average online order is $140 and increasing with best in class retailers seeing $160+ baskets.
- Digital is Easier. For the consumer who is time pressed but dollar savvy, for the retailer who can leverage tools such as email, online circulars, and online shopping to a better ROI, and the manufacturer who faced with the massive media fragmentation can find millions of consumers in one place shopping just for groceries.
This trend is only going to accelerate as we move into 2009. Remember your local book store? They were hit by the same tidal wave of forces only for many of them to close shop unable to cope with the sudden and dramatic change. Retail Grocery is at a similar inflection point and our goal at MWG is to navigate these changing waters to enable our partners to win.
Alec Newcomb
