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

Grocery Doppio’s latest survey reveals grocers’ holiday prep strategies, including stress testing digital channels, increasing digital promotions and expanding delivery and pick-up options.

Holiday grocery shopping season will be more omnichannel than ever before.

This forecast comes from Incisiv, a next-generation industry insights firm that helps retailers and brands navigate digital disruption, and Wynshop, a provider of digital commerce and fulfillment solutions for local store-based retailers.

According to their State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecard for October 2023, 83% of shoppers planning to use grocers’ online stores and apps, 78% of shoppers reporting that they will buy both in-store and digitally for the upcoming holiday season and 21% planning to buy the majority of their holiday groceries online.

[Read more: Will holiday sales be ho, ho, ho or ho hum?]

How grocers are investing in preparedness for an omnichannel holiday season:

  • Online stress testing/optimization (86%);
  • Increasing digital promotions and discounts (77%);
  • Expanding delivery and pickup options (74%);
  • Improving inventory visibility options (69%); and
  • Personalized offers (47%).

The monthly State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecards are one of many resources available on the Grocery Doppio website. The latest report was built around data analysis of 2.1 million shopper orders and aggregated survey results from more than 38,113 shoppers and 3,611 U.S. grocery executives.

More key findings from the October 2023 Performance Scorecard include:

  • Pickup has emerged as the fulfillment channel of choice;
  • 52.3% of all digital grocery orders were fulfilled by pickup in October 2023, representing an 8.2% increase over September pickup orders;
  • 62% of shoppers intend to do even more pickup orders over the holidays than they normally do;
  • Digital grocery sales regained momentum, while third-party sales continued to slump;
  • October digital grocery sales were $11 billion in October, representing 13.2% of total grocery sales; This was a 6.8% increase over September, and the highest level in six months that digital grocery has achieved; and
  • Third party platform market share dropped to 15.6%, the second time below 16% in 2023, and the lowest level of market share in the past 48 months.

“It’s beginning to look a lot like an omnichannel Christmas,” said Gaurav Pant, chief insights officer of both Incisiv and Grocery Doppio. “As cold weather sets in, shoppers struggle with busy schedules, and grocers extend digital promotions and convenient fulfillment options, shoppers will utilize all the channels at their disposal.”

[Read more: Survey: 70% of Americans plan to shop for themselves during holiday sales]

“This year grocers are more prepared than ever for digital grocery,” said Charlie Kaplan, chief revenue officer at Wynshop. “Industry leaders are using digital technology to amp up online traffic and ensure that they have the inventory transparency and fulfillment efficiency to maintain happy holiday customers.”

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