In Europe, one in 10 food sales is now made without the consumer setting foot in a store.
And you, are you one of those people who prefer to fill their shopping cart directly online?
More generally, what is your view on the development of food shopping deliveries?
This week, Arte broadcast “Hypermarkets, the fall of the empire”, a survey on the methods of large-scale distribution carried out by Rémi Delescluse. We discover how the price war leads the big brands to put pressure on their suppliers and even their franchisees.
The second part of the documentary examines the arrival of Amazon in the food market. A revolution which has led historical players to accelerate the development of home food deliveries. We learn in particular that in Europe, one in 10 food sales is now done without the consumer setting foot in a store.
Drive and pedestrian drive: a boom accelerated by the Covid
In 2020, the market share of e-commerce in the food market was on average 7.8% (two points more than in 2019). During the health crisis, the drive grew by 50% according to Michel-Édouard Leclerc. A phenomenon that can be explained simply by the fear of contracting the virus in supermarkets. At the same time, more and more pedestrian drives are setting up in city centers.
Most of the large brands that offer a drive-through service also offer home delivery (Chronodrive, Cora, Carrefour, Super U, etc.) For example, at E. Leclerc, delivery is possible from 50 euros of purchase and for an amount from 9.90 euros.
Grocery deliveries: the sprint is on
Yandex, Gorillas, Cajoo… These names may not ring a bell. These companies, already established in Paris, could soon offer their services in other large provincial towns. Their niche: super-fast grocery delivery, with delivery promises in less than 15 minutes, or even less than 10 minutes. To achieve this, these start-ups no longer even really have a store, but “dark stores”, that is to say several small warehouses in which order pickers are instructed to always go faster.
Amazon: future world market leader?
This is a question that can be asked at the end of the documentary “Hypermarkets, the fall of the empire”. We learn that by buying the Whole Foods hypermarket chain in 2017, Amazon made the whole market shudder, even causing the stock prices of its competitors to plummet.
But why has this digital giant bought supermarkets? According to the people interviewed by Rémi Delescluse, Amazon sees these stores more as a strategy than a project. Concretely, the company is so rich that it can afford to slash the prices of consumer products in order to weaken its competitors. Stores are also a way of building customer loyalty, in particular by pushing them to subscribe to an Amazon Prime subscription to be able to access promotions. In addition, the creation of hyperconnected Amazon Fresh supermarkets makes it possible to better understand the eating habits of individuals, in order to then target them more effectively online. One of the goals being for Amazon to succeed in selling more and more food products online!
As with non-food, Amazon continues to offer what has allowed it to dominate the market: free returns for customers who subscribe to Amazon Prime.
Shopping for food online: the pros
- Saves time (especially when promising fast delivery)
- Convenient to manage your budget since you have an eye on the total of the races as you fill your virtual basket
- Avoids “cracking”, that is to say the impulse purchases that can be made by passing in front of a product on the shelf
- Could allow to know more about the products (In China, JD Com allows for example to know the opinions of other consumers on a food product before ordering it)
Shopping for food online: the cons
- We cannot see the product we are buying (will the avocado be ripe? Won’t the apples be too ripe?)
- Less human: no longer going to the store also means no longer interacting with cashiers, no longer meeting an acquaintance in a department, no longer asking the butcher for advice …
- Job cuts: the Casino group has already created a dark store in which robots have relocated employees to prepare orders
- Targeted advertising for express deliveries? A bag containing a box of instant noodles, a packet of crisps, a yogurt and a banana, delivered in less than 10 minutes to his office, this is an advertisement that could “crack” more than one Internet user if it was displayed on his working screen at 11:55 am!
So shopping for food online: for or against?
See the documentary ” Hypermarkets, the fall of the empire »In replay
Available until 12/17/2021
Click here to find all the debates offered on Maville.com
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