Improving Fulfillment Efficiencies and Testing/Deploying AI Decision Capabilities Tops Grocers Digital Priorities for 2023

Incisiv and Wynshop’s Grocery Doppio industry research platform reveals the latest data insights on the state of digital grocery in its October Performance Scorecard.

Incisiv, a next-generation industry insights firm that helps retailers and brands navigate digital disruption, and Wynshop, the leading provider of digital commerce and fulfillment solutions for local store-based retailers, revealed the findings from their State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecard for October, 2022, which includes grocers’ outlook on 2023.

With the end of the year approaching Grocery Doppio asked grocers additional questions this month about their plans for digital growth in 2023. Here are some of the results:

• Spending on digital will increase by 2.3% even though overall technology budgets will shrink about 1% next year.
• The three most popular investments will be fulfillment efficiencies (77%), followed by digital basket size nurturing (67%) and system-wide inventory data accuracy/transparency (55%).
• AI decision capabilities (18%) is the new technology that grocers plan to test and deploy the most in 2023, followed by robotics for fulfillment (15%).

These and other data insights are now available for download on Grocery Doppio, a free, independent source of grocery insights and data designed to help grocers jumpstart, accelerate, and sustain digital growth.

The monthly State of Digital Grocery Performance Scorecards are one of many resources available on the Grocery Doppio website. The reports are built around data analysis of 1.5 million shopper orders and survey results from more than 18,000 shoppers and 1,800 U.S. grocery executives.

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• Digital’s share of overall grocery market bounced back
  —After declining in September, digital grocery sales reached 11.8 billion dollars in October
  —This represents a 12.4% leap since September
  —Digital’s share of the overall grocery market was 14.9% in October, the highest share of the total grocery market that digital has controlled since January, 2022, when it reached 15.2%
  
  
• Digital basket size grew in October
  —Digital baskets averaged one item more in October than they did in September
  —Overall basket size grew as well, averaging 4.5% higher than in September; This adds to a 10.2% increase in Q3 2022 as compared to Q3, 2021
  —At $79.9 in October, average digital basket size continues to dwarf average store basket size, which itself saw modest growth to $49.7 in October
  
  
• Share of grocery pickup sales continues to increase
  —Total pickup sales grew to $6.3 billion in October, an increase of $0.8 billion over September
  —That growth extended pickup’s lead over delivery as a fulfillment method, giving it a 53.7% share of all digital grocery orders, as compared to just 46.3% for delivery
  
  
• Third-party provider sales dipped yet again
  —Digital grocery sales through third-party providers grew by just $0.1 billion from September to October
  —This resulted in third-parties’ share of digital declining nearly 2%, from 22.7% in September to 20.9% in October
  —Third-parties’ share-of-market has now lost nearly 7% since Grocery Doppio began tracking in Q2, 2022

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“Fulfillment efficiency is clearly a priority for grocery leaders in 2023,” said Gaurav Pant, Chief Insights Officer of both Incisiv and Grocery Doppio. “The ability to accurately portray available inventory and get orders quickly and efficiently into the hands of shoppers will be a key competitive differentiator in the coming year.”

“The data shows with great clarity the shift in grocers’ strategies since the pandemic began,” said Charlie Kaplan, Chief Strategy Officer of Wynshop. “It is no longer only the largest players leaning into digital. Local and regional grocers have upped their game to compete effectively with third-party providers, and now more grocery shoppers prefer to buy direct.”

Every month, Grocery Doppio brings together rich, research-driven grocery content, fact-based observations, inspiring perspectives, and deep performance benchmarks that identify improvement opportunities for grocery retailers. The site is designed specifically to help grocery and food executives optimize their digital and in-store channels, and accelerate growth profitably.