Online CPG sales are predicted to reach $32 billion in the US by 2017 as a new generation of tech-savvy consumers increasingly demand the convenience that online grocery shopping delivers. In the UK, the online food and grocery market is predicted to almost double in the next few years to over £11 billion. But trust is key for grocery retailers to win over shoppers who have traditionally purchased groceries in-store.
In a recent article from Direct Marketing News, Michael Kildale, VP of Integrated Marketing for the fast-growing US online grocer Fresh Direct explained the key difference between Fresh Direct and a traditional grocery store.
“It’s all around trust. When it comes to the grocery category, a lot of it is about trust as a whole. Now you have moms who used to go to the grocery store, touching the produce, making the judgment call on their own – we’re taking that from them and we’re saying we’ll do just as well as you did. Trying to get over that and communicate that to customers is the biggest difference. “
As a spokesperson for US online grocer Peapod explains, “Online grocery shopping is kind of like banking: it relies on trust. You don’t want to take a lot of chances.”
To capture this trust, it’s essential for online grocers to display correct product information on their web pages. With both retailers and suppliers looking to drive sales and improve the shopping experience for the online grocery shopper, IGD’s ShopperVista service highlights reliability and reassurance as key areas:
- Reliability is a main priority as the online shopper looks for the right products to be delivered at the right time. This remains a significant influence on choice of online supermarket
- Reassurance that food remains fresh when bought online is also important to shoppers: online grocers need to emphasise care taken in the selection process
Trust starts with the product information that shoppers see in the online store – if your product pages are missing essential information (such as wrong features, images or nutritional information), trust starts to break down and you risk losing out on sales. Get it right and the opportunities are endless.
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