Walmart has most online grocery shoppers, Amazon tops in satisfaction
Another study on shoppers during COVID-19 finds American consumers buying more online now than before the pandemic. A survey by the Retail Feedback Group found that roughly half of in-store grocery shoppers bought their food online in the last 30 days. The study also looked closely at how shoppers felt about getting groceries through the likes of Instacart, Amazon and Walmart.
The Retail Feedback Group, or RFG, study joins others like the monthly record-setting numbers of online grocery shopping that consultancy Brick Meets Click has been publishing.
RFG's online survey presents more of a channel focus in the space, reporting that 34% of its online shoppers bought groceries through a “supermarket,” up from 22% a year ago, compared to Walmart, who had the most online shoppers with 40%. Amazon decreased slightly from 29% of online grocery shoppers a year ago to 14% in the latest study from Lake Success, N.Y.-based The Retail Feedback Group. Instacart, having a boom in business during the coronavirus, saw online orders grow to 36% from 27% last year, per the study.
On a five-point scale to rate overall satisfaction, Amazon led the way. All the channels surveyed showed lower overall satisfaction compared to a year ago but the results were high, per the study. Amazon landed at a score of 4.47, followed by Walmart (4.38), supermarkets (4.33), and an Instacart subset of supermarket deliveries score 4.35.
“Considering the sudden, sizeable pressure on online grocery shopping during the pandemic, it is noteworthy overall satisfaction registered as high as it did,” said Brian Numainville, principal, Retail Feedback Group. “Although supermarkets surged in online shopping use, and many customers may stick, the results show some supermarket shoppers don’t expect to continue online shopping.”
The study also found that while 38% of shoppers surveyed used one online grocery provider, 62% used two or more in the last three months.
The survey also looked at in-store shopping conditions and supermarket shoppers were largely pleased with the freshness and quality of food in stores. Associate availability and associate knowledge ranked lowest in the results.
About half of the respondents said the stores didn’t have everything they wanted in stock but only about 17% said they couldn’t find a substitute product. More than half felt the food they were buying was safe.