How omnichannel shoppers are building their baskets

As online grocery shopping continues to grow in adoption, e-commerce strategies are a more important part of consumer-packaged goods overall plans. Winning with these new shoppers is what will drive overall growth today and in the future.

Omnichannel shoppers use both online and in-store shopping to get their groceries. They range from ecommerce newcomers to experienced online veterans, and they look for both modalities to deliver experiences that help them easily and confidently complete their orders each time.

Omnichannel shoppers typically go online to save time, save money and streamline their shopping experience. But they still turn to in-store visits when they need something quickly, have a small list of items or want to browse when buying for a special reason or event.

There is no single omnichannel shopper persona. Instead, there is a spectrum of shoppers across the omnichannel continuum. One way to look at this spectrum is to understand differences and similarities at both ends of adoption. On one side are the “digital dabblers,” who buy groceries online, but have low loyalty to the channel, typically because they are new to ecommerce. On the other end, we have “digital champs,” shoppers who are “all in” on ecommerce, though they also shop in-store. These shoppers spend more than online newcomers on pickup orders, delivery orders and in-store purchases.

This infographic shares insights from new research that sought to answer questions about the shifts in behavior that ecommerce has enabled — new patterns we’ve formed, new behaviors we’ve adopted, and new preferences that have emerged.

Overall adoption of ecommerce has grown 2X since 2019 and so has the rate of hybrid shopping, meaning shopping both online and in-store. Looking ahead, 85% of households plan to either maintain this accelerated rate of ecommerce usage or increase even further in 2022.

To maintain market share and shopper loyalty, it’s important for brands and retailers to stay connected to shoppers across multiple channels and devices. To create a better shopping experience, we must proactively develop products and experiences that meet consumers where and when they shop, both in-store and online. Shopper analytics are key to providing a real understanding of the customer, so you can deliver a highly tailored and personalized journey that increases comfort and confidence in navigating the ecommerce shopping experience.

When there is only one aisle — the digital aisle — it changes how baskets are built.

• What are the new impulse items when there’s no checklane?

• When it’s urgent what are the items needed “now?”

• Mobile or desktop?

These questions point to opportunities for ecommerce practitioners — both from the brand and retail perspective — to better meet needs around convenience, confidence, control, and inspiration.

While in-store shopping remains the primary home for medium cart (four to 17 items) and small cart (one to three items) purchases, pickup and delivery is preferred for large, stock-up trips and/or heavy or bulky items that are more easily picked up or delivered.

Small ecommerce baskets often fill with urgent needs. Small pickup orders tend to include baby essentials such as formula, diapers and wipes. Small delivery orders often comprise family and household essentials such as baby items, pet food, toilet paper, or entertaining essentials including alcohol, beauty and flowers.

Mobile devices prevail as the shopping tool of choice. More than 60% of online orders are made using a mobile app, versus a mobile web or desktop device.

It’s critical to invest in the broad ecosystem, so customers can decide how they want to shop for a given type of trip — and don’t have to compromise on convenience, confidence, control or inspiration. As consumer behaviors continue to shift, winning shopper loyalty today will have a big impact on customer lifetime value.

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