Online grocery shopping offers consumers an incredibly convenient way to shop for the food, beverage, and other home items they need. Instead of going to the store and navigating crowded aisles, shoppers can shop from the comfort of home, work, or anywhere they have access to the internet.
For consumers, buying groceries online offers several significant benefits. Most notably, it saves time, helping consumers avoid a lot of unnecessary frustration. In today’s world, shopping for groceries online is also a safer way to get the food and other items consumers need. Payment facilitation makes it easier for grocery stores to provide an online grocery shopping experience to customers.
How Has Online Grocery Shopping Changed Over the Years
Buying groceries online was not that common not all that long ago, even though the first online grocery delivery service (Peapod) started in 1989. While ordering electronics, clothing, and other items online picked up pretty quickly, online grocery shopping was slow to take off.
As recently as 2019, ordering food and beverages online wasn’t hugely popular. While the trend was picking up some momentum, experts didn’t expect it to explode. Then the pandemic hit. People stayed home and only ventured out to the stores when absolutely necessary. Buying groceries online took off, and experts believe it’s here to stay, even as life gets back to normal.
Market Size and Growth Trends
Before the pandemic, online grocery shopping was growing, but it only made up a tiny part of the entire grocery market. E-commerce for food and beverage sales was only 2% of the total sales in 2019. Initially, experts projected online food and beverage sales to reach nearly $24 billion in 2020 and more than $38 billion in 2023. These projections meant that e-commerce sales would make up 2.3% and 3.5% of total sales, respectively.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, online grocery sales grew 54% in 2020. Sales far exceeded the initial prediction. They reached more than $95 billion, or 7.4% of the total food and beverage sales that year. While much of that growth was due to first-time online shoppers, who may go back to their pre-pandemic habits, many people are likely to remain digital grocery shoppers.
The New Way of Online Grocery Ordering
During the pandemic, grocery stores had to adapt quickly. As some of the only stores that stayed open early on when everyone else was shuttering their doors temporarily, they had to implement numerous changes in how they did business to ensure the safety of their customers and their employees, including offering online shopping. Payment facilitation made it much easier to achieve these goals. Even as things gradually return to normal, the new ways of online grocery ordering likely aren’t going anywhere, at least not anytime soon.
Click and Collect
With social distancing being one of the most important aspects of reducing the spread of the virus, click and collect, which includes everything from buying online and picking up in-store to curbside delivery, gained substantial popularity. While customers may still want to come to the store on some occasions, there may be occasions in which the convenience of click and collect makes more sense.
For grocery merchants, offering click and collect provides another way to engage with customers. Additionally, they can use mobile, point of sale, or POS, solutions to assist the customers who need to add on a few extra items when they arrive to get their groceries.
Delivery
Not every person who needed groceries wanted to spend any amount of time in the store during the pandemic. As a result, grocery delivery became incredibly popular. Customers could order what they needed, pay for it online, and have it brought to their front door. Even now, many consumers see the benefit of such a service.
Whether the store has dedicated employees for delivery or uses a third-party service, merchants can also offer card-present payment acceptance in addition to online payment. Such an option can help them avoid costly transaction fees while also engaging with their customers more.
Improved Customer Experience
There are plenty of customers who still want to go to the grocery store to buy what they need. Many shoppers who may have used click and collect or delivery during the height of the pandemic are beginning to return to in-store shopping. Options like self-checkout, self-service kiosks, and line busting with mobile POS systems all help grocery stores provide a faster way for customers to check out, thereby improving the overall customer experience.
How Amaryllis Can Enable Grocery Ordering
For merchants and software companies that are looking to expand into the online groceries business, Amaryllis can help. With Amaryllis, business owners can quickly launch, scale, and generate a new revenue stream by monetizing their payments.
What Amaryllis Offers
Amaryllis offers an all-in-one payment facilitation solution, eliminating the need for businesses to work with multiple vendors or invest in IT services. The platform includes everything grocery stores need, including merchant underwriting, payment acceptance, split fees, flexible payouts, and more.
The Main Benefits of Building an Online Grocery Shopping Experience with Amaryllis
Businesses gain some significant benefits working with Amaryllis to build an online grocery shopping experience for their customers:
Quick Underwriting and Onboarding
Businesses can quickly underwrite and onboard grocers, drivers, caterers, and others. They can feel confident knowing that everything is in order as well as in compliance.
Seamless API Integration
With seamless API integration, grocery stores can begin accepting payments for online orders. They can enable acceptance with almost any payment service, too.
Split Fees Easily
Businesses can split fees between stores, drivers, and anyone else who participates in online orders. They can also override fees in real-time and even create seasonal fees or reserves.
Provide a Branded Partner Portal
A business can provide its grocery stores, locations, and drivers with access to a branded partner portal. With such access, partners can view their activity, fees, and profits.
Authorize and Validate Credit Cards
Grocery stores can authorize payments and validate credit cards at the time of the order. They can also change the amount at pickup if a customer needs to add on items or the store needs to reduce the payment amount to account for missing items.
No Revenue Sharing
Businesses get the lowest possible processing costs. Additionally, Amaryllis only charges a fixed monthly SaaS fee.
Improve Online Grocery Shopping with Amaryllis Payment Facilitation
Online grocery ordering became hugely popular during the pandemic, and it’s not likely going to disappear anytime soon. With Amaryllis payment facilitation platform, grocery stores can create an online shopping experience for their customers, giving those customers a safer, more convenient way to shop while also enjoying some significant benefits themselves. For more information and to get started, schedule a demo with Amaryllis today!