Will Americans Take to Shopping for Groceries Online?

The United States is home to many of the world’s largest
alternative to eBay stores, and the mania for shopping online only continues to grow in just about all quarters. But one sector of the online shopping universe is still lagging behind the potential that e-commerce giants are hoping for. And that’s shopping for groceries online.

The latest research indicates that compared to their peers in Europe and Asia, Americans still much prefer to do their shopping for the dinner table at brick and mortar grocery stores and supermarkets.

One of the main reasons Americans are slow to shop online for Hamburger Helper is the cost. The big online players have yet to devise the infrastructure needed to bring grocery prices online down to the same level as offered at the neighborhood supermarket. Plus delivery time, and reliability, is seen as a definite drawback when it comes to shopping for groceries online.

And perhaps the biggest fly in the ointment for companies like Amazon and Walmart is the distinctly American penchant for ordering takeout — which has burgeoned into a billion-dollar industry in just the past few years, fueled by, among other things, the tantalizing expectation that their next order of General Tso’s chicken will be delivered to their door by drone. Americans are ordering delivered cooked meals online by the millions, while they order their groceries online by the tens of thousands. Those stats will probably stay the same for the next few years, at least.