Grocers Lost Margin and Market Share on Digital Grocery Sales in 2023, but are Optimistic about 2024, with Focus on Omnichannel Leading the Way

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Dec 14, 2023, 11:45 ET

Grocery Doppio's 2023 Year in Review report reveals insights about omnichannel shopping, AI in grocery,
and the impact of inflation on digital grocery, along with predictions for what's coming in 2024.

NEW YORK and MIAMI, Dec. 14, 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 Grocery Doppio's 2023 Digital Grocery: Year in Review report.

Grocery executives cited top line revenue growth (77%) and profitability (67%) as key digital challenges for 2024. But with 69% of all 2023 grocery sales digitally influenced in some way, omnichannel execution is at the forefront of grocers' minds. 83% said that "improving integration between store and digital systems" is their top digital priority for 2024. 59% of grocers believe that they will perform better in 2024 than they did in 2023.

The report is based on data from 2.2 million shopper orders, plus polling responses from 40,133 grocery shoppers and 3,883 grocery executives between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2023.

More key findings from Grocery Doppio's "2023 Digital Grocery Year in Review" report include:

Digital grocery faced challenges in 2023, but shows signs of inventory improvement
—Overall grocery sales increased to $926B, but digital grocery sales declined from $128B in 2022 (14.4% of all grocery sales) to a projected $121B in 2023 (13.1% of all grocery sales).
—Grocers lost an estimated $19 billion in digital sales in 2023 due to "unavailable" or "unsubstituted" items, and suffered a digital sales margin loss of $281 million in 2023. However, this represents an improvement against 2022, when they lost $23 billion, and $298 million, respectively, due to the same problems.
—Having returned to their pre-COVID trajectory, digital sales are now back on track to reach 16% by 2026.
Digital grocery changed in some ways in 2023, remained the same in others
—Third party grocery partners continued to lose market share to grocers' own digital offerings, falling to just 15.2% in Q4, 2023, as compared to nearly 30% in Q1 2022.
—Pickup remained shoppers' preferred fulfillment method, however, holding steady at 52% from 2022 to 2023.
—Amidst rising inflation, shoppers had to spend 12% more in 2023 just to maintain parity. This came at the cost of brand name selection and quantity of items.
AI leads grocers' digital technology strategy for 2024
—While grocers' technology budgets will increase just 2.1% in 2024 overall, digital grocery will enjoy an 8-14% budget increase in 2024, as compared with 2023, and AI will receive a bump of 14-37%.
—73% of grocery executives expect AI capabilities to be embedded in most or all of their technology by 2025.
—71% of C-level/SVP/EVP grocery executives plan to track their organizations' use of AI closely.

"Inflation put a dent in 2023 digital grocery sales," said Gaurav Pant, Chief Insights Officer of both Incisiv and Grocery Doppio. "As customers modified their shopping strategies to battle rising costs, they did more in-store purchasing. However, grocers' technology investments for 2024 demonstrate confidence that the long-term trend for digital grocery is still up and to the right."

"Inventory control, omnichannel shopping, and effective implementation of AI are key to aspects of achieving profitability in digital grocery," added Charlie Kaplan, Chief Revenue Officer at Wynshop. "Grocers need the technological ability to accurately measure shopper behavior and unlock value multipliers across shopping channels."

The 2023 Year in Review report is one of many resources available on Grocery Doppio. Grocery Doppio is a free, independent source of grocery insights and data designed to help grocers jumpstart, accelerate, and sustain digital growth. Grocery Doppio brings together research-driven grocery content, fact-based observations, and industry expert perspectives, to deliver a monthly performance scorecard that identifies improvement opportunities for grocery retailers.

To download Grocery Doppio's "2023 Digital Grocery: Year in Review," click here.

To register and join today's webinar "State of Digital 2023: A Recap of Digital Grocery Spends and Trends" at 12PM ET, click here. Speakers will include Doug Baker, VP Industry Relations at FMI, Barry Clogan, Chief Evangelist at Wynshop and Gaurav Pant, Chief Insights Officer at Incisiv.

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