For example, Chinese retail giant JD.com launched its first “unmanned convenience store” in 2017, and has since rolled out line-free technology in its stores in China and Indonesia.

Some retailers have already taken steps to do so, such as Target’s local stores, convenience store and delivery service Foxtrot, which operates in urban neighborhoods in Chicago, Dallas, Washington, DC, and Virginia, as well as Ulta Beauty’s locally focused stores. The big takeaway: Retailers need to recognize and adapt to evolving shopping behaviors.

Amazon has also struggled to fully leverage its brick-and-mortar locations: While Amazon Fresh stores have resonated with consumers, Amazon Go convenience stores have been less successful. More on this: Since Amazon’s $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods, the company has made grocery expansion a priority.

As shoppers opt for grocery delivery over in-person store visits, bodegas and other local convenience stores are struggling to compete.

In a sign of its grocery ambitions, Amazon recently hired longtime Tesco executive Tony Hoggett as its senior vice president of physical stores. Amazon Fresh’s differentiator: The retailer is experimenting with multiple ways to allow shoppers to skip the checkout line. Some stores feature the Just Walk Out technology that Amazon debuted in its Amazon Go convenience stores.

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.

The delivery company has expanded into owning its own inventory with DashMart, a ghost convenience store that launched in 2020. More recently, DoorDash unveiled DoubleDash, which lets customers tack on additional items from convenience stores alongside a restaurant order, which the delivery provider picks up along the way. Overall, customer loyalty should become a key focus.

Why Amazon keeps experimenting with physical stores: While offline sales represent a tiny fraction of its overall sales, Amazon has plenty to gain by venturing into the real world.

Don’t miss out on the rise of corner store ecommerce, or “quick commerce.” More and more convenience store items are being sold via delivery apps. CPG brands that sell in this channel should investigate promotional opportunities in apps that serve this category. Grocery and CPG marketers should focus on apps that command a larger share of wallet, like Instacart.

Apps in Canada have already started including convenience store items as part of “corner store ecommerce.” Advertising is another revenue driver, with convenience players like 7-Eleven and quick-service restaurants like Subway paying to advertise on food delivery apps. Ordering groceries online has become more popular since the beginning of the pandemic.

Restaurant delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats expanding into grocery, pharmacy, and convenience store delivery. The rise of quick commerce startups like Gopuff and Gorillas that use micro-fulfillment centers to deliver food and beverage items in a little as 15 minutes. Food and beverage is the second-largest category when measured by total retail sales.

Despite increasing numbers of shoppers returning to brick-and-mortar grocery stores, the convenience of getting fresh food items delivered will be an appealing factor for many.

With brick-and-mortar sellers increasingly losing out to ecommerce, there are fears that local bodegas and convenience stores will be hit hard. The proliferation of “dark stores,” which are small warehouses that delivery companies use to source goods, will also reshape what Bloomberg calls “sidewalk life”—the vibrancy and communality of city streets.

This is especially promising given the digital yuan’s government affiliation: One PBOC pilot focuses on farmers markets, pharmacies, and convenience stores in villages surrounding Dalian, for example. But wallets could also partner directly with rural retailers, as Alibaba did in 2019, to expand acceptance and attempt to grow user bases on their own. Read Next. Sources. Asia Financial. Boku.

In 2020, Ria partnered with OXXO, the largest chain of convenience stores in Latin America, to enable money transfer pickups at OXXO locations. The company also partners with Walmart, among others on the US side. Rising Crypto Payments Heralding Blockchain. As the Mexican remittance market digitizes, the country is starting to favor crypto payments.