Sandra Levy|Senior Editor
Source: drugstorenews.com, August 2023

Grocery Doppio’s survey of the grocery industry reveals opportunities for grocers to leverage technology and shopper data, and finds that third-party apps are in trouble.

Grocers beware. Shoppers are unhappy about the typical in-store checkout experience, according to Grocery Doppio’s latest report, July 2023: State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecard, from Incisiv and Wynshop.

In fact, the report found that 84% of grocery shoppers said that they are dissatisfied with checkout speed, while 77% said that in-store checkout was the worst part of their grocery shopping experience.

Notably, 67% of grocery shoppers reported that they would be willing to try new technologies that could make checkout simpler and faster, and 71% said they would be willing to share their personal data in order to achieve that result. However, 94% of respondents expressed concerns that grocers cannot sufficiently protect their biometric data.

The latest report was built around data analysis of 1.8 million shopper orders and survey results from more than 31,540 shoppers and 3,041 U.S. grocery executives.

[Read more: Consumers are willing to try different products, services amid inflation]

More key findings from the July 2023 Performance Scorecard include:

  • 71% of grocers will increase the number of technologies that use shopper data in the next two years;
  • Self-checkout led grocers’ 2024 “test or deploy” plans (83%) followed by AI personalization (63%) and computer vision systems (47%);
  • Third-party grocery apps endured their lowest returns of 2023;
  • Grocery orders through third-party apps declined yet again, totaling at $1.6 billion dollars in July, down from $2.5 billion in August, 2022;
  • Analysis of third-party revenue decline revealed that third parties are on track to drop 40% in 2023 vs 2022;
  • Digital Basket sizes were up—for large grocers;
  • While the average digital basket size for small grocers (under $10B) was 27 items, the average rose to 43 items for large grocers (over $10B); and
  • The average digital basket value across all grocers was $172

“Third party apps are in real trouble,” said Gaurav Pant, chief insights officer of both Incisiv and Grocery Doppio. “As grocers develop their own digital capabilities, we believe that it will become increasingly difficult for outside organizations to deliver value to the marketplace, using their current model.”

[Read more: FMI report: Fewer shoppers cutting back on items purchased, despite higher prices]

“Consumers have spoken,” added Charlie Kaplan, chief revenue officer at Wynshop. “They are absolutely willing to play ball with grocers by contributing their personal data. However, grocers must respond in kind by protecting shoppers’ personal data, and by solving the current problems in the grocery shopping experience—both online and offline.”

To download Grocery Doppio’s “State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecard: July 2023,” click here.