Even with a partial lifting of lockdown measures, the coronavirus continues to limit movement of people—and this has hit the UK high street hard. From retailers with a high dependency on physical stores to restaurants and coffee shops without delivery facilities, the obstacles have proven insurmountable for some. For others, the longer-term question is, "Will the UK high street be able to recover when (and if) normalcy returns?"

While still only accounting for a minority of overall grocery sales, it still represents significant growth in a category where in-store shopping has been vastly dominant. With grocery retailing, Amazon is at a disadvantage in the UK, given the established grocery players’ history of digital advancements.

Click and collect has been a growing trend for some time now as US consumers found they enjoyed the convenience and cost-savings of purchasing online and picking up their order on the way home from work or while running errands.

The omnichannel supermarket chain acts as both physical storefronts and fulfillment centers, whereby consumers can visit a nearby location to make grocery purchases and check out just as they would at traditional supermarkets. Or they can scan the in-store product barcodes via the Hema app and place their order for home delivery. Consumers can also take the entire experience online via the app.

According to TABS Analytics, 2019 was a year of hockey-stick growth for both initial trials and increasing frequency of online grocery ordering. Overall penetration among US internet users jumped from 38% in 2018 to 56% in 2019, while the percentage of those who regularly ordered groceries online spiked from 17% to 37%. Online logistics are also continuing to improve.

The retail industry is transforming at both physical stores and in digital. This report examines 10 trends that will most shape retail in the year ahead.

Even though food and beverage has traditionally been a product category with low digital penetration in the US—we peg the category at 2.8% of all retail ecommerce sales for 2018—online sales are steadily picking up steam.

Fresh food was another top category, according to digital sales (including omnichannel sales via mobile devices) on JD.com’s 7Fresh supermarket, which doubled from 2019. The online grocery category also joined the fray: Alibaba’s food delivery platform Ele.me doubled its sales from last year. Many factors can be attributed to 618’s success this year.

The rising spending rate is a function of several underlying trends including digital shoppers becoming more habitual in their ecommerce purchases, buying across more product categories and higher average order values as they acclimate to buying things like furniture and groceries online. Top Ecommerce Categories and Retailers.

Walmart’s expansion of Delivery Unlimited, its grocery delivery membership, is the latest attempt by a major retailer to make online grocery shopping more appealing. But better delivery value only addresses cost—not quality.

US consumers are shopping online more as they continue to avoid brick-and-mortar. According to a recent eMarketer study conducted by Bizrate Insights, health, food and beverage purchases made digitally are seeing an uptick. Apparel, not so much.

Food and beverage, personal care and auto parts products have traditionally lagged behind in ecommerce, but when you look more closely, it’s easy to see significant growth potential.

Some 15% of respondents said they would adopt click and collect, and 17% would shop more online for home delivery. Some consumers plan to do more online shopping in the future. In an April 2020 survey conducted by McKinsey & Company, 20% of adults in France thought their digital grocery shopping would increase after the pandemic, and 15% thought they would shop more online for nongrocery items.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver and junior analyst Blake Droesch discuss whether people will have an appetite for the upcoming video streaming services, the future of online grocers, if the pandemic has eased the techlash, examples of companies building goodwill, whether it's OK to always wear pajamas when working from home, and more.

Consumers are constantly in search of convenience, particularly in the form of timesaving. In the past 12 months, numerous direct-to-consumer (D2C) meal plan services have emerged, offering consumers an alternative solution to home cooking without paying a dreaded visit to the grocery store—or spending time trying to figure out a recipe.