GLOBAL ONLINE GROCERY DELIVERY MARKET
INTRODUCTION
Ways of buying goods has evolved over the times owing to easy availability of the product. Online shopping segment is dominated by electronics and fashion goods. The online grocery market although is a bit new to the sector; the demand has grown rather exponentially. Doorstep delivery and the hectic schedule of the working people have been the major drivers of the market. Ever since the COVID-19 broke out online grocery vendors are inevitably been the go-to option for the shopping of home needs, as the public is in lockdown and offline retail stores are closed increasing the market like never before.
MARKET SEGMENTATION
By Products Type
- Grocery & Staples
- Fresh Products
- Packaged Food
- Household Items
- Personal Care
- Others
By Geography
- US
- Europe
- China
- India
- ROW
MARKET DYNAMICS
In the current situation of lockdown factors such as the limited operating hours at supermarkets and limit on number of shoppers allowed in the stores to maintain social distancing pushing the customers to choose online over outlet shopping for groceries.
The same day delivery and within an hour delivery features are available for premium customers. This willingness of customers to pay extra for this will boost the market. Also the amount spent by customer per order has significantly increased.
In US, Walmart largest supermarket chain has seen a surge of 21% in online grocery sales in the month of March.
The dedicated online grocery vendors such as BigBasket and Grofers deliver to close to 30 cities across India. These the 2 leading vendors have witnessed double the number of orders per day compared to period before lockdown. They are operating more than 200,000 orders per day as per April 2nd week.
US ONLINE GROCERY DELIVERY MARKET
In US traditional retail grocery outlets like Albertsons, Target and Kroger are all rapidly evolving into digital vendors. SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits the eligible low-income individuals by providing the budget to buy groceries has extended the services to shop online, helping to increase the customers for the online vendors.
EUROPE ONLINE GROCERY DELIVERY MARKET
Europe collectively is worst hit region in number of positive cases of COVID-19. Since the lockdown restrictions are stricter in this region compared to US, the public is force to turn to online shopping for essentials such as groceries. In European countries the dairy products have been the most popular fresh product purchase followed by fruits and vegetables ever since the lockdown.
CHINA ONLINE GROCERY DELIVERY MARKET
MissFresh online grocery delivery start-up had witnessed a jump in orders by 237 percent in the month of February. Dingdong Maicai most profitable online platform had doubled its daily users in January last week. Alibaba invested 200 billion Yuan to boost the deliveries in Hubei region.
INDIA ONLINE GROCERY DELIVERY MARKET
Increase in penetration of internet services and smartphone number in the country have been the major contributors for online grocery market. Southern India accounts for more urbanised cities and holds the higher market share. In the northern and western region due to less urban population the market is limited to few cities.
MARKET SIZE AND FORECAST
Amid lockdown, cab service provider Uber has started delivery service options called Uber Direct and Uber Connect in US, Mexico and Australia. This will help the online grocery vendors to increase the supply and spend less on transportation.
BigBasket India has invested more 60 million USD in the current situation to meet the surging demand from the public.
Amazon is partnering with the local grocery stores to sell the goods through their company’s platform and is investing 1.3 million USD. This will boost Amazon’s penetration in Indian grocery market.
RECENT MARKET TREND
- In UK, March alone saw more than 1.2 million online orders. However the number saw a dip in April owing to rushed stockpile in March.
- Carrefour French retail has partnered with Uber Eats to deliver everyday products such as groceries starting in Paris.
- In Italy there has been more than 80 % increase in the online grocery shopping from the start of the March.
- Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has been delivering groceries to communities and hospitals in Wuhan.
- Spanish retailer DIA has partnered with on-demand delivery company Glovo to expand its online reach across Spain.
- Swiggy food delivery platform has started grocery and household essential delivery in 125 cities in India after partnering with leading offline retailers.
- Zomato another food delivery partner from has started the grocery delivery in over 80 cities. Grofers is working with Zomato to expand its delivery fleet.
- BigBasket has partnered with Uber and two wheeler mobility firm Rapido to deliver the essential to doorstep in selected Indian cities.
- Walmart owned Flipkart has increased the delivery of groceries to 400 Indian cities during the lockdown.
- The Facebook’s investment in Reliance Industries has initiated the e-commerce platform JioMart distinctively for grocery and as of April 27th it is currently available in selected areas of Mumbai.
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
In US InstaCart, Amazon, Boxed are the major dedicated online grocery vendors. Many offline retail firms have evolved into online vendor, competing these vendors.
In UK offline stores turned online vendors Sainsbury, Asda and Lidl. Ocado and Amazon are leading online vendors.
Chinese firms such as DingDong Maicai, Yihaodian and Wai Yee Hong are the leading players in this sector.
The 2 big online vendors from India are BigBasket and Grofers. Amazon and Flipkart with their online services Amazon Pantry and Flipkart Supermart have reached far more more cities in India than the former 2.
