Grocery ecommerce is continuing to have a moment as more consumers get in the habit of shopping this way.

The pandemic has shifted the grocery landscape this year, accelerating digital groceries faster than we previously anticipated. Kroger—who’s digital investments over the years have helped the company navigate amid the pandemic—will see its ecommerce sales surpass $11 billion this year, growing over 79% in 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing consumers to buy essential products digitally, rapidly accelerating the development of the online grocery industry in the US.

Grocery and CPG Set to Benefit Most. Across Western Europe, digital grocery buying increased massively in the wake of the pandemic. In Italy, for example, groceries accounted for just 3.1% of ecommerce sales in 2019, or about €1.50 billion ($1.68 billion), according to Casaleggio Associati.

Insider Intelligence research analyst Daniel Keyes, principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst Cindy Liu discuss how the coronavirus changed retail and ecommerce. What are our base, best and worst cases scenarios? They then talk about who frictionless retail is for and what Americans' online grocery experience really looks like.

eMarketer senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Paul Briggs discusses what he's paying attention to in 2021 and why: online grocery shopping, food delivery apps, and more 2021 trends to watch out for in Canada.

The pandemic also caused a spike in grocery app downloads, likely aiding CPG’s mcommerce growth. For example, the Walmart Grocery app held the No. 1 position in the retail app category on April 5, 2020, up 460% from its daily average in January 2020, according to mobile app analytics firm App Annie. As mobile spending grows, CPG ad spending on desktops/laptops will decrease 8.7% to $5.20 billion.

In addition to seeing a boost in new customers over the past few months, FreshDirect has also received a surge of orders from existing customers who had moved out of New York City, where the online grocery operates primarily. In response, the company expanded its delivery services in Connecticut and in New York’s Westchester County and Long Island to meet demand.

With much of the US still under stay-at-home orders, consumers are growing more accustomed to grocery shopping online. Brick-and-mortars, delivery startups and ecommerce retailers are adapting to the new normal, but even leaders in online grocery like Amazon and Walmart have struggled to keep up with demand.

Instead, it launched a digital red nose filter, which customers could receive by making an online donation. To promote this year’s Red Nose Day, Walgreens partnered with more than 80 micro- and macro-influencers, whose posts garnered more than 330 million likes and 12 million impressions throughout the length of the campaign.