Retailers have had a difficult time trying to persuade American consumers to start shopping for their groceries online.
For most people in the US, they still prefer to go to the grocery store in order to make their purchases and get what they need. Online grocery sales today only make up about 1 to 3 percent of the market overall and retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and others, are looking for ways to change that.
When it comes to the US grocery market, Walmart reigns supreme with grocery sales that account for about 14 percent of the overall market.
This is where most people decide to do their grocery shopping and this really isn't that much of a surprise considering that Walmart is the largest retailer in the country. The success continues, as the company just recently announced that their food sales this year have reached their highest that they've been in the last 5 years.
Over the last several years they have been trying to strengthen their stance in the online grocery market and at the moment they currently offer their online grocery service to over 900 locations throughout the US.
Some of their competitive attempts to try and boost their success, have been the introduction of things like grocery delivery services, the creation and availability of exclusive snacks, and new payment methods (Walmart Pay) that allow consumers to pay for their purchases without having to go through a traditional cashier and checkout aisle.
They also recently announced a partnership with Google to pursue the creation of a voice-activated shopping experience for consumers.
For Walmart, food is a big part of their business operation and it accounts for about half of their overall revenue; accounting for hundreds of billions in revenue from grocery sales every year. In recent years we have also seen Walmart expand their selection of fresh foods and organic items, helping to make items increasingly affordable for US consumers. One Walmart store location in Florida even just recently opened up a fresh/organic food restaurant at its location.
An online retail war has been brewing, said to be between Amazon and Walmart. And Walmart may have the upper position for now when it comes to the US grocery market, but competitors are always looking to try and change that. And this is why Walmart will always need to be trying to innovate and trying to compete, so that they can maintain their market position.
One reason that many consumers say they love shopping at Walmart is because of the low prices on many of their items, but they might not have the lowest price for long. Whole Foods and Amazon will be looking to aggressively compete in that area; Amazon recently announced that they plan to drastically cut prices on a wide variety of goods at Whole Foods; following their acquisition.
Amazon has a dominance over Walmart when it comes to their online retail superiority and now that they've acquired Whole Foods it might be only be a matter of time before we see a shift and more consumers start to go looking in another direction for their food needs. Though the new deal for Amazon gives them hundreds of new physical locations around the US to help them carry out the grocery delivery, Walmart is still in the lead with stores within 10 miles of roughly 90 percent of Americans.
Pics:
Wikipedia via forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/#3d9f1043720b
via knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/amazon-vs-walmart-one-will-prevail/
Sources:
http://time.com/money/3769044/walmart-lowest-rated-groceries/
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/20/americans-buying-more-food-walmart/
http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-opens-organic-restaurant-in-florida-store-2017-8
https://phys.org/news/2017-08-amazon-looming-walmart-touts-surging.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/walmart-google-1.4258588
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/24/whole-foods-price-cuts-amazon-walmart-online-war
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/the-discounts-at-whole-foods-could-help-solve-amazon-primes-biggest-headache.html
http://fortune.com/2017/04/05/amazon-walmart-costco-target-market-cap/
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