Blog: Food brands have yet to fully exploit the rise of online grocery

Dean Best | 23 September 2015

Online selling still represents a huge opportunity for food manufacturers to develop a better understanding of their shoppers and to reach them directly, according to a new report set to be published next month.

The report, How Brands Can Win in Online Grocery, written by Professor David Hughes, Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing at Imperial College London, and Miguel Flavián, states searchability - the ease of which their products can be found in e-commerce grocery stores - is a decisive factor in the successful online merchandising of packaged food.

The authors also argue manufacturers, frustrated with the constraining limitations of the traditional supermarket grocery model, are now turning to the web build direct relationships with consumers, offer new products and services and drive sales.

Writing in the report, author Miguel Flavián said: "Online, consumers search for the best choice and price, and the fastest service; and companies which provide these successfully will be rewarded by their customers.

"We have a generation of consumers who have learned how to be savvy online shoppers, but hot on their heels is another generation that considers online shopping to be the norm."

The importance of consumer reviews, direct selling, and mobile shopping, including the use mobiles by consumers when in store, are also examined.

The report will be available on just-food in mid-October. However, people who take out an annual subscription to just-food before 30 September, at a 35% discount on standard pricing, will receive a free copy of the full report well in advance of its publication. To take advantage of this offer click here.