Bite-Sized Insights: Online Shopping For Groceries

Each week we ask our trusted Insights panel of parents a key question. This week we were interested in understanding what they think of using online shopping for groceries. It turns out 51% of shoppers still want an in-store experience. Take a quick read of this week’s bite-sized insights to find out what else parents told us:

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We’ve seen many reports recently about an uplift in online shopping during Coronavirus but having done our own recent survey with our trusted panel of parents about online vs. offline shopping, we were curious to see whether there had been any changes in using online channels for grocery shopping.

We asked our Insights panel of parents to answer this quick question:

Have you used online shopping for your groceries during lockdown?

Never bought groceries online before. Doing it now. Will continue. 7%
Never bought groceries online before. Doing it now. Don’t think I’ll continue. 3%
Never bought groceries online before. Not doing it now. 51%
Sometimes bought groceries online before. Doing it now. Will continue. 7%
Sometimes bought groceries online before. Not doing it now. May go back to it. 29%
Sometimes bought online before. Not doing it now. Not going back to it. 1%
Always bought groceries online before. Doing it now. Will continue. 1%
Always bought groceries online before. Doing it now. Don’t think I’ll continue. 0%

Some additional comments from our panel members included:

“Tried to at the start but no delivery slots available”

“Bought groceries online from Tesco when my 4 kids were younger and I had a very busy job. Haven’t bought online in a few years now and haven’t during Covid 19 either. Great to have the option if needed though.”

“I prefer picking my own groceries and esp fresh meats, vegetables and fruits. It’s not readily available in my area yet. Thought about it before, can see it’s handiness.”

“Excellent service from Supervalu”

“It can be a bit labour intensive to buy online and I prefer looking for fresh food when in store.”

“We didn’t buy online during lockdown as vulnerable people needed the slots.”

Reflection for Supermarkets

Mums still seem to prefer in store shopping for groceries but maybe there’s a hybrid future model of “order your basics online” with prepopulated basket going to a Click & Collect which also allows them to stop in and pick up the fresh goods on top?
How can supermarkets make the instore shopping as seamless as possible for the customer? Look at increasing options for self-scanning and self-service to keep visits short and contact-free.
Increase bays/areas as well as more slots for Click and Collect shopping to encourage more online ordering options. Many of our respondents said they couldn’t get a home delivery slot easily or didn’t want to take a slot that someone more vulnerable may need.
For online orders, ensure that fresh produce picked is top quality and drive that message home with consumers / train staff, etc
Keep store changes to a minimum during the current pandemic as shoppers get used to products being in a certain place, so changes can slow them down
What content-linked-to-ordering opportunities are there? Such as: Buy all the ingredients on this recipe, all added to basket and delivered to your home in a user friendly quick process.

Would you like business-transforming insights from parents for your business? Use our tailored panels of engaged parents and our dedicated private platform to gather critical insights to help influence consumers to deliver long term profitability. Contact us now to find how we can help.