Digital Sales, Brand Loyalty, and Number of Items take a Hit in Q1 as Grocers and Shoppers Develop Strategies to Fight Soaring Inflation

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Apr 06, 2023, 11:53 ET

Lagging in digital maturity, smaller grocers face the most pressure, but regional grocers lead the way in offering SNAP benefits online

NEW YORK and MIAMI, April 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Incisiv, a next-generation industry insights firm that helps retailers and brands navigate digital disruption, and Wynshop, the leading provider of digital commerce and fulfillment solutions for local store-based retailers, today revealed the findings from their State of Digital Grocery Performance Card for Q1, 202 3.

According to the latest Grocery Doppio report, 63% of grocery shoppers reported that they are now actively looking for deals when they shop. That appears to be impacting not only what they buy, but what channel they buy it through. Digital grocery sales dipped to 13.9% of overall grocery sales in Q1 2023, down from 14.8% in Q1 2022. And despite a 13% increase in digital basket size from January to March 2023, the number of items per basket remained flat, reflecting that shoppers are struggling hard just to maintain parity.

These and other data insights are now available for download on Grocery Doppio, a free, independent source of grocery insights and data designed to help grocers jumpstart, accelerate, and sustain digital growth. The Q1 2023 scorecard is based on shopping data from 1.7 million shopper orders, polling responses from over 27,000 grocery shoppers and more than 2,600 grocery industry executives.

More key findings from the Q1 2023 Performance Card include:

Inflation is chipping away at brand loyalty

73% of shoppers tried a private brand in 2023.
Shoppers each have only 4-5 national brands that they will not 'trade down.'
Only 17% are willing to pay more for a premium brand.

Grocers are implementing new strategies to keep customers

Pricing Optimization (83%), Member Only Pricing (77%), and Loyalty Points on new Categories (67%)
are grocers' top-reported strategies for reducing the inflation pinch.
31% of grocers now offer SNAP benefits online. Regional grocers lead the way, with 53% offering SNAP,
as compared with just 15% of national grocers.

Marked digital differences have emerged between small and large grocers

Shoppers spend an average of $149.10/digital order at national grocers, compared to $75.20 (regional), $51.00 (local), and $34.90 (small) at other stores.
15% of overall orders were digital at large grocers in Q1 2023, as compared to 0.8% at small grocers (down from 1.4% in Q1 2022).
62.2% of digital orders were fulfilled by delivery (rather than pickup) at small grocers, while just 45.3% of digital orders used delivery as the fulfillment method at large grocers.

"Many grocery shoppers are going back to stores to seek deals and avoid online fees and minimums," said Gaurav Pant, Chief Insights Officer of both Incisiv and Grocery Doppio, "While the digital grocery market is now much larger than before the pandemic, inflation has normalized growth at something near to the original trend line."

"Shoppers are spending more at the big national chains in a bid to stretch their grocery dollars," said Charlie Kaplan, Chief Revenue Officer of Wynshop. "The national chains have also invested in their online businesses. To protect their market share, local and regional grocers need to increase their online functionality to promote private brands, to offer SNAP benefits, and to provide efficient order fulfillment by both pickup and delivery methods."

Every month, Grocery Doppio brings together rich, research-driven grocery content, fact-based observations, inspiring perspectives, and deep performance benchmarks that identify improvement opportunities for grocery retailers. The site is designed to help grocery and food executives optimize their digital and in-store channels and accelerate growth profitably.

To download Grocery Doppio's "State of Digital Grocery Performance Card: Q1, 2023," click here.

On Wednesday, April 12 at 12PM ET, Incisiv and Wynshop will be hosting a webinar to discuss the Q1 2023 performance scorecard findings together with Doug Baker, VP of Industry Relations at FMI. Click here to register.

To learn more about Grocery Doppio visit www.grocerydoppio.com.

About Incisiv

Incisiv is a next-generation industry insights firm that helps retailers and brands navigate digital disruption in their industry. Incisiv offers consumer industry executives responsible for digital transformation a trusted platform to share and learn in a non-competitive setting, and the tools necessary to improve digital maturity, impact, and profitability. More information is available at www.incisiv.com.

About Wynshop

Wynshop is an ambitious team of digital innovators obsessed with a solitary mission—helping grocers and other local store-based retailers grow wildly successful online businesses. Its refreshingly easy-to-use digital commerce platform enables efficient in-house picking, reduces fulfillment costs, and gives retailers the ability to control every facet of their customers' digital shopping experience. This results in a more personalized customer journey and amplified shopper loyalty. Learn more at www.wynshop.com.

Media Contact:
Laurel Getz
[email protected]
203.767.5963

SOURCE Wynshop