This week in grocery, Albertsons adds nutrition tools to drive digital adoption, The Fresh Market adds prepared meals to its eCommerce site, and eGrocer Hungryroot’s artificial intelligence (AI) drives rapid growth.
Grocery giant Albertsons Companies, which operates more than 2,200 stores, announced Wednesday (Aug. 16) that it is adding a new tool to its “Sincerely Health” platform (a set of wellness-oriented features included on 16 of the grocer’s apps and websites), enabling consumers to track the nutrition of their grocery purchases according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) MyPlate guidelines.
These features encourage continued engagement with the grocer’s eCommerce platforms even when consumers are not making purchases, embedding its brands more deeply into their day-to-day lives. Additionally, by linking these features to consumers’ purchases, the grocery giant incentivizes users to do more of their food shopping at its stores.
“As a grocery and pharmacy retailer committed to the health and wellness of our communities, we are empowering customers to have a connected and personalized view of their health across food, nutrition, activity, mental well-being and pharmacy services, enabling them to make more informed choices,” Omer Gajial, Albertsons chief digital officer and EVP health, said in a statement.
On the whole, digital engagement with grocers is on the rise. Additional research from a survey of nearly 2,500 U.S. consumers conducted for PYMNTS’ study, the “ConnectedEconomy™ Monthly Report: The Urban-Rural Health Divide Edition,” revealed that digital participation in the grocery sector is increasing across all income brackets, with low-income consumers (those who make less than $50,000 a year) growing their engagement the most, up 8% year over year.
The Fresh Market is expanding its presence in the prepared meals space as consumers increasingly seeking quick, easy meal options at lower prices than restaurants offer.
The supermarket chain, which has 159 stores across 22 states, announced Wednesday the launch of new “meal solutions,” including ready-to-eat meals designed for entertaining at home to be ordered for pickup 24 hours in advance as well as new 20-minute meal kits.
Indeed, consumers are looking for quick meal options to replace restaurant ordering. Research from PYMNTS’ May study “Connected Dining: Ready-to-Eat Meals are Eating Restaurants’ Lunch,” which draws from an April Survey of more than 2,300 U.S. adults, revealed that a whopping 57% of consumers (roughly 96 million people) had bought ready-to-eat meals in the previous month, and nearly two-thirds of those who had done so purchased them from grocery stores.
The demand for ready-to-eat meals comes as restaurant prices skyrocket. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that year-over-year restaurant price inflation is nearly twice that of grocery, 7.1% versus 3.6%.
Online grocer Hungryroot, which leverages AI to personalize the shopping experience, announced Wednesday that, in the first half of the year, revenue increased 67% relative to last year.
“In 2019, we pivoted to become an AI-driven, truly personalized healthy grocery and recipe service,” Founder and CEO Ben McKean said in a statement. “Since then, we’ve grown more than 10x by using our AI to flip the traditional grocery shopping experience on its head, starting with a full cart instead of an empty one. Today, our AI selects two-thirds of what our customers buy.”
This rapid growth suggests that, as consumers increase their eGrocery adoption in the years ahead, AI-powered personalization can play a significant role in securing their loyalty and creating a more profitable business.
According to data from PYMNTS’ study “Tracking the Digital Payments Takeover: Catching the Coming eCommerce Wave,” created in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which drew from an April survey of nearly 2,700 U.S. consumers, 32% of shoppers said they are very or extremely likely to increase their online grocery purchases in the next year.
That being said, the study found that, currently, only 12% of grocery transactions occur online — 6% via mobile devices and 6% via computers.
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