E-commerce

Grocers online business model needs work, reveals report

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July 9, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing greater numbers of consumers to online grocery shopping and grocers need to improve the e-commerce channel experience, according to a Bain & Co. report.

The rush to shop online for food and home items has revealed that grocery operators need to step up and make needed fixes, according to a CNBC report on the data.

The U.S. online shopping traffic accounted for 5.1% of sales as of the close of 2019 and spiked to 6.6% this past April — the time frame in which the coronavirus shuttered most retail stores.

"In some sense, it's a wake-up call," said Steve Caine, a reports authors, according to CNBC. "You can't just run it at a loss. You can't ignore the fundamental economic equation any longer. You've got to begin experimenting, particularly with the revenue model, to get to a path toward sustainability."