As online industry is booming and expanding to mobile and to more convenient home deliveries, a look at the online market proliferation of convenience stores, shows that there is still a lot of room for growth. In today’s market, the 3 things that are becoming more and more important are — mobile device, to-the-door and personalizations. The convenience stores have traditionally competed with one another, and with the Walgreens and the CVS of the world, and grown in the past. Convenience stores typically cater to the following categories:
Cigarettes and Gas are the main traffic drivers, and contribute to highest percentage of convenience store sales.
While the traffic to the convenience stores, would still come from the gas-filling customers and younger demographics, it has to be wary of the sales going down due to competition coming in from a sector, which is providing more convenience at a lower price. Competition that kills is not always the usual suspects, but most likely from a totally new sector/technology proliferation in the market. When it comes to categories like — food, groceries — today shoppers can choose the item from a variety of assortment, price compare and order the same to be delivered to their home through the touch of a finger on their devices.
Let us look at some of the new and leading players in the grocery delivery space.
1.Instacart — Instacart delivers groceries within an hour.
Image Source: Instacart.com
2. Amazon Fresh: Amazon Fresh is another example of retailer providing grocery services.
Image Source: Amazon.com
With this trend, it is very imperative, that traditional convenience stores step up their game and improve their online presence. Lets take a look at online presence of a few convenience stores –
On analyzing the Google trends from the last few years , and it can be readily seen that people searching for “grocery delivery” is steadily increasing, the highest rank being in United States.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=grocery%20delivery
It can also be seen that other related keywords — “grocery delivery service”, grocery home delivery” are trending too. While the prices to home deliver might be higher at this point, it would not be long when these retailers, can make it more affordable by making their logistics more efficient. It would be interesting to see whether the customer will choose to pay the extra dollars at a convenience store or via online shopping, where she has much more flexibility.
In 2016, it was published, that 7-Eleven has actually tested drones for home delivery through an app. Will this venture take off in the future, and provide a channel for the convenience industry to compete with others on the app-to-door, is to be seen.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are authors opinions and perspectives.
References:
http://www.cstoredecisions.com/2017/02/20/7-elevens-fresh-future/
