Canadians are increasingly enthusiastic about their Smartphones, with 67% of us owning one and 38% of us admitting we can’t imagine leaving home without it. 49% of Canadian grocery shoppers would also like to use their Smartphone to save money at the store with app’s, according to research by Mintel, but only 13% actually do so. Just 12% of Canadians have shopped for groceries online, even though 71% are experienced online shoppers. Grocery stores will have to work slowly and steadily to improve the internet shopping experience and educate consumers.
“Our research indicates resistance to grocery shopping online stems primarily from concerns around the freshness of products. However, there is hope for the offering as a fifth of shoppers are interested in making a grocery purchase online, while not having done so to date. Among those who have bought groceries online (12%), there is interest in ordering groceries online again (8%),” said Carol Wong-Li, Senior Lifestyles and Leisure Analyst at Mintel.
While 68% of Canadians surveyed said they haven’t and won’t shop for groceries online, interest varies greatly amongst age groups, income level, and for those with families.
Shoppers most interested include:
26% of Canadians under 45 years old
28% of households with children
25% of households with three or more residents
24% of those who are employed
Canadians most likely to have shopped for groceries online:
21% of residents aged 25-34
24% of Asian Canadians
18% of households with Children under the age of 18
How to Encourage Grocery Shoppers to Buy Online
- If grocery and department stores want to increase online and omni-channel food shopping, they have to address associated concerns and engage shoppers.
- A focus on coupons and savings that are easily accessed and applied will encourage shoppers to use their Smartphones more in-store, which in turn makes shopping directly with a mobile device that much more “natural”.
- An option to shop online and pick up in-store will also ease shoppers into eCommerce. 44% of Canadians have expressed interest in this concept.
- Retailers can enhance the shopping experience with information, such as the ability to hover over a health product to learn about its benefits, or links to recipes using that particular ingredient.
- It’s convenience that will attract the most people to online grocery shopping in Canada, be that saving time or avoiding bad weather.
- Use data to your advantage. Encourage shoppers to sign up for coupons and special offers, then use their data to target the items they’re interested in.
- Remember that grocery shoppers aren’t overwhelmingly female anymore and include men in your targeting.
“Beyond re-creating the traditional coupon experience on a new platform, grocery retailers have the opportunity to adapt technology in ways that could vastly improve the grocery shopper experience,” said Wong-Li. “This will be increasingly important as the cost of food continues to rise and the market becomes more crowded.”
Other Canadian Grocery Shopping Statistics
While not directly related to shopping online, the following Canadian statistics will be helpful in general to those in this sector.
- 35% of those surveyed enjoy grocery shopping.
- 78% of people shop for groceries at least once per week, and 29% shop even more frequently.
- Canadians who shop most frequently are senior citizens (43%) and parents of children aged 12-17 (35%).
- Consumers who grocery shop about once per week have children under 12 (51%) and are working full-time (54%).
- 25% of those who only shop 2-3 times per month are Millennials, 18-24 years of age.
- 51% of consumers do all of the grocery shopping. 42% share the chore with someone else.
- 59% of those who do all of the grocery shopping are women.
- 58% of Canadians who do all of the grocery shopping have children at home.
- 42% of males do all of the grocery shopping.
- 59% of men over 55 years old help with grocery shopping.
- 36% use a grocery list but will watch for sales that may result in increased spending.
- 62% of Canadian grocery shoppers feel quality is more important than price.
- 73% love the thrill of scoring a deal in the grocery store.
- 43% are focused on only buying products on sale.
- 29% use coupons for groceries.
- 54% check flyers for sales.
Are you offering omni-channel options or online ordering to Canadian grocery shoppers? Please share your experience or questions in the comments below.
Source: Mintel Grocery Retailing – Canada
✔ You may also be interested in reading:
Online Opportunities from Canada’s Frugal Grocery Shoppers (Statistics)
Canadian Mobile eCommerce (mCommerce) to Grow in 2015
10 Tips for Taking Product Photos That Sell Online
82% of Online Canadians Shopped Online Recently
——————————————
© CanadiansInternet.com – Content on this website (all or in part) may NOT be used elsewhere without expressed permission. Content theft will result in legal action. Thank you for respecting the effort that we have put into our original content. If you would like to have high quality content created for you, please contact our writer directly.
DISCLOSURE: We may receive compensation for links to products on this website.
COMMENTS ARE MODERATED – Legitimate comments will be published after a short delay. Spam will not be published.
Melody McKinnon is an internet entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in a wide range of online business models, backed by a formal business education and enhanced by training and mentorship. She has owned or managed both educational and ecommerce websites. Her book, 7 Recession Proof Online Businesses to Start From Home, is available from all major ebook retailers.
Melody has worked with many businesses & brands in a multitude of capacities. She can often be found on CanadianDigitalMedia.com, CanadiansInternet.com, CanadianFamily.net, and AllNaturalPetCare.com, as well as other quality digital publications. Her content has earned reference links from highly-respected websites, magazines and university textbooks.
Follow Melody McKinnon on Medium:
https://medium.com/@business_32556
That’s quite interesting. Thank you for sharing it with us!
I love it whenever people get together and share ideas.
Great website, stick with it!
I am really thankful to the holder of this web page who has shared this fantastic piece of writing at at this time.
Great insights & love the hungry play on words. Grocery gets more and more hard to stay afloat with chains and discount stores. Specialty is best like Whole Foods.
Grocery stores would probably do better with online ordering if they gave a lot of thought to what’s available online. If they offer local delivery perishables would still be ok. If it’s shipped they need to know the packaging can hold up. The more I think about it the more I like the idea and I’d be a customer.
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to order groceries online but nobody does it around here. Such a hyper local thing it would take some doing but the big chains could give it a go right.