NEWS IN BRIEF

Grocery stores lead way for online ice cream orders, says 1010Data

29-Jun-2017 - Last updated on 30-Jun-2017 at 14:46 GMT

Photo: iStock/Nadore

The center of the store may be where growth of online sales and orders thrive, but consumers are getting more comfortable clicking away to buy products from other aisles to. According to 1010DATA, online ice cream orders have grown threefold since 2014 during the summer months.

Grocery stores lead the share of online ice cream orders in the period between 2014 and 2016 with 55%. This means more than half of consumers who buy ice cream online do so from mass grocery chain websites like Safeway, Shoprite, Peapod, and Instacart, 1010DATA’s report revealed.

This was followed by Mass Merchant at 24% (Amazon, Walmart, and Shipt), and then restaurant delivery services such as Grubhub, Postmates, and Eat24.

General consensus among market analysts, such as Nielsen’s VP of consumer insights Jordan Rost, is that brick-and mortar will prevail as the main channel for sales of frozen foods, fresh foods, and prepared meals for some time.

However, 1010DATA’s numbers reflect how online grocery sales in general are picking up. In fact, numbers from Toronto-based market research firm Unata forecasted one in three North American shoppers will buy groceries online this year at one point or another.

What’s the basket size?

“Most of the merchants with the largest basket size increases are grocery chains,” according to 1010DATA’s report.

While the research firm didn’t provide dollar amounts, the data revealed percentage increases of over 25% in basket size. Isolating just ice cream sales, the average transaction value of ice cream orders through Shipt, an online platform that crowdsources personal grocery shoppers on-demand, led the way with a 73% increase in the period between 2014 and 2016.

Trailing behind was Fresh Direct with 31%, Schwan’s with 26%, Shoprite with 24% and Safeway with 21%. “Most of the merchants with the largest basket size increases are grocery chains,” the report said.

“Based on our ﬁndings, merchants who sell ice cream online should consider promotional opportunities for ice cream products during the summer months to drive higher overall basket sizes.”