What Lies Ahead For On-Line Grocery in Canada?

As the country emerges from the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, every industry is facing questions.

Questions like: what is the new normal – and what does the future hold?

Nowhere are these questions more relevant than in digital grocery. The IBM Retail Index reports that the shift from brick-and-mortar retail to digital shopping increased by as much as five years over the course of the pandemic – a monumental change.

Digital grocery is increasingly a fixture in shoppers’ lives, from home delivery, to in-store pickup, to ordering through smart speakers. How are shoppers using these services, and what opportunities and challenges face digital grocery in 2021?

To answer these questions and more, we used the Field Agent platform to survey 1,000 real shoppers (we call them agents). These agents gave us insight into the role that digital grocery plays in their lives, and answered questions including:

•     What are shoppers’ major concerns with online grocery?
•     Which online grocery retailers and third-party services are rising to the top?
•     What are the permanent effects of the pandemic on shopper habits?
•     What will online grocery look like five years from now?

“There is no doubt that the adoption of on-line grocery has been expedited by the pandemic and retailers have stepped up with new offerings as well. We have traditionally lagged well behind the US in this space but we are closing the gap quickly.” stated Jeff Doucette, General Manager of Field Agent Canada. “While it may not be the drones and automated robots delivering items to our door, the future does look very bright for on-line grocery.”

See full report here.