During quarantine, the utility of buying groceries via delivery or via click-and-collect options was proven essential. Prior to the pandemic, the many obstacles for digital grocery—including people’s desire to see fresh produce before buying—made it among the least penetrated categories for ecommerce.
Do you see retailers scorecarding customers in their sustainable purchase behavior with things like buy online, pick up in-store(BOPIS), versus rush orders or high return behavior? Lipsman: It’s an interesting idea that retailers could help drive sustainable practices by scoring customer behavior along key dimensions of sustainability.
Walmart's click-and-collect and Express Delivery services have contributed to its massive ecommerce growth. Amazon is limited in its ability to offer click-and-collect groceries. However, it has expanded its offerings via brick-and-mortar Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon Go stores.
As consumers continue to adopt omnichannel shopping habits, Amazon will likely focus on expanding hybrid offerings like click and collect and leveraging its Prime members to build customer loyalty for physical stores as it has done online.
Click and collect is helping to drive online grocery growth. Consumers who have been hesitant to shop in-store—and don’t want to pay certain online grocery delivery fees—have found a middle ground: curbside pickup.