I have written numerous times about the growth of Walmart and Amazon and the juggernaut of big numbers. In the latest quarter Amazon grew Y/Y more than DeMoulas Markets, the number 41 North American Grocer generates in a year.
This is not to say that Amazon’s growth is coming from grocery, it is not. As a matter of fact they have had remarkable success in gaining, every week every household business despite by their own numbers generating FMCG purchases from only 4% of their customers. So they have not turned their sights on grocery in a significant way…yet.
The point is that consumers have been much more willing to change their purchase habits and channel preferences than any of the experts have predicted across the consumer products spectrum from shoes to sugar.
The amount of volume switching channels and seeking benefits other than those provided by their traditional retailers is staggering. Over 3 billion dollars shifted out of traditional book, electronics, music and other outlets in one quarter.
And so for our next few blogs we are going to concentrate on two issues:
1. A few key areas that FMCG retailers should concentrate efforts in order to position themselves to at least keep pace and potentially win in the shift in consumer shopping habits.
2. A couple of hypothetic models of how some of the big digital based interlopers might come after your grocery customers. No inside knowledge here, just speculation. My purpose is clear…to give the grocery retailer of the day a foil against which she might counter strategize.
