While the majority of fresh produce is bought in-store, online shopping carts are filling up with more and more fresh produce too, but there’s a lot of room for improvement.
“Consumers want to be romanced, whether it’s in store or online. We have to be able to connect to their sensitivity,” said Joe Watson, vice president of member engagement, retail and SME for the Produce Marketing Association.
Watson and Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics, co-presented the keynote breakfast session, “E-Commerce: Making it Work for You,” at the Sept. 29-30 New England Produce Council Expo in Boston.
“Just like produce department leads the store in the physical sense, it is starting to online too,” Roerink said. “And produce is the fresh leader in the online basket. It’s really produce that drives the success of the store online as well.”
Out of the top 15 fresh categories purchased online, 12 are produce. The others are specialty cheese, ground beef and bacon.
Retailers need to promote and merchandise online, asking themselves: What are you doing to highlight seasonal or new items to online shoppers, especially those high-impulse items?
“We all know that when a consumer is in your store, over 40% of sales are done on merchandising,” Watson said. “If we can replicate that needle online, we’ll grow very fast. We need to gain that consumer trust. It’s going to take time.”
Search results showed:
- 69% of shoppers prefer to-each pricing (not by the pound);
- 83% sales specials matter; and
- 82% start with past purchases.
E-commerce jumped five years ahead on its old growth trajectory, but it’s dropped from 18% of grocery trips in October 2020 to 13% today, according to Roerink’s data. Online share fluctuates with COVID-19 outbreaks.
Still, of all new online shoppers, 50% are continuing to buy online. But of those households who’ve bought produce online, 32% say it’s not as good as the produce they buy in-store.
Training the pickers, quick tracking of inventory with online offerings, ensuring correct orders are matched to the consumer, quality, freshness — all are key.
Shoppers are also starting to shop for ingredients online on the same webpage as their online recipes.
Roerink used Pinterest as an example, showing links to purchase in the recipe.
“We’ve got to shorten the steps from inspiration to purchase, get the ability to add all the ingredients of a recipe to a shopping list or online shopping cart,” she said. “That’s how the expectations of the shopper is becoming faster and faster.”
Some key takeaways from the session include suggestions for retailers, growers and shippers.
Retailer implications:
- Continue to invest with speed in digital capabilities to gain omnichannel share;
- Consider driving more pricing online for convenience, variety and unique products;
- Look to optimize fulfillment costs and enhance media advertising to drive profitability;
- Segment omnichannel users to target products, solutions and services; and
- Build unique in-store and online experiences to drive traffic; encourage discovery, impulse and occasion-based purchases (e.g., bundled solutions).
Grower/shipper implications:
- Improve online profitability managing price and unique assortment;
- Track and optimize digital marketing and digital trade/shopper spend;
- Optimize omnichannel supply chain to reduce shipping and warehouse costs;
- Work with retailers to forecast and meet consumer demand. Prioritize investments with top retailers in-store and online;
- Earn your spot-on shopping lists, which are often repeated. For impulse items, leverage “buy again” and automated recommendations;
- Leverage direct-to-consumer sites to drive loyalty and gain inputs to consumer tastes; and
- Inroads made by small manufacturers are a call to action for larger places that risk longer-term omnichannel loss.
