The future of food retail is the omnichannel approach. The food retail industry is constantly experiencing shifts in consumer behaviors and trends with online food retail. Traditional grocers have a unique opportunity to take advantage of this behavioral shift and lead the unification of an in-person and online grocery shopping experience. Innovation in productivity, convenience, and consumer experience is what will continue to fuel this change.
One approach to omnichannel is making it easy for grocery shoppers to shop the content that they see online. Say a consumer sees a delicious meal on a social media page that they want to recreate. The mental connection between the content they are seeing and the desire to re-create the meal is an opportunity that grocery retail companies should take advantage of. While this could be an opportunity to utilize online grocery retail, it is not necessarily an approach that would work for every shopper. Though many consumers do use grocery e-commerce, online shoppers are still doing most of their shopping in-store.
Food retail does not have to be only in-person or solely online. As consumer’s expectations evolve, brick-and-mortar stores can enhance their in-person shopping experience with technology by creating a seamless physical and digital experience that transforms in-store food shopping into a unique experience. Consumers will continue to shop in-person, while using their mobile phone apps and e-commerce, therefore yielding an omnichannel shopping experience.
For more information about omnichannel in food retail, check out the Grocery Omnichannel Index. FMI and FitForCommerce partnered to create the industry’s first exploration in how leading grocery retailers are meeting consumer demands for digital and omnichannel shopping experiences. The presentation benchmarks retailer capabilities across web, mobile, and in-store channels from the eyes of their shoppers.