Companies such as Amazon have been making large investments into the home grocery delivery service industry, as noted with the continued growth of Amazon Fresh and similar resources for online orders. These strides have been ever prevalent since 2017, when Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, solidifying their foray into the grocery sector. Other retail giants, such as Walmart and Kroger, are similarly following suit and emphasizing online grocery sales in their own ways as well.
These changes inevitably cause consumers to wonder what the developments mean for brick-and-mortar stores with most agreeing that, while physical stores are certainly not going anywhere anytime soon, the growth in online sales revenue from home deliveries points to interesting changes in a once fairly static industry. For example, CNBC has reported that Walmart experienced a 41 percent increase in online sales in 2019’s third quarter, anticipating a growth of 35 percent for the full year when compared to that of 2018. Walmart and Kroger predict that, by 2025, ten percent of total sales will come as a result of online delivery service. These findings point to the population’s growing acceptance of online grocery deliveries.
Superior Farms, as America’s leading lamb marketer and processor, has seen changes due to the developing trend of online grocery service as well in the past year as well. For example, Superior Farms experienced a 28 percent growth in sales in 2019 when compared to 2018, in part due to Amazon Fresh’s online delivering strategy. Superior Farms expects that the trend will only continue, as lamb’s popularity and versatility as a protein becomes more evident and more online grocery delivery sales include lamb as Walmart and Kroger take leaps into the online grocery sector.
The home grocery delivery space is not without its challenges, however, as some consumers hesitate to trust a deliverer to peruse fresh items such as meat and produce and select the best quality available. Still, the intrinsic benefits of online ordering are largely winning out, as consumers are enticed by quite a few aspects of the practice. Most notably, the convenience factor of ordering online and having groceries delivered is very appealing. Consumers also cite benefits such as the ability to keep track of spending as contributing factors to their increasing acceptance of online grocery delivery. In addition to monitoring spending habits, consumers are becoming more at ease with having their fresh meat and produce selected by a delivery worker.
While some of the projections for the grocery industry and online grocery delivery are speculative, one thing that is for certain is that Superior Farms continues to provide top-quality product to customers, whether those customers be brick-and-mortar retailers or online.