Omnishopper Size of the Prize

By Doug Baker, Vice President, Industry Relations - Private Brands, Technology, FMI

The food industry moves fast these days, which is why it’s important to pause and re-evaluate from time to time. This is especially true of evaluating the new marketplace and the role you as a food retailer or supplier are playing in it.

For the past few years, FMI has partnered with Nielsen on important research that does just that—pauses and looks at the state of the omnichannel marketplace for grocery shoppers and reflects on what is happening. In the beginning we focused on digital shoppers—their activities and the business imperatives needed to reach them. This year, we’re focusing on omnishoppers—consumers who shop both online and in-store—and looking at their demographics, what they purchase online, and, most importantly, re-evaluating the size of the prize.

As you can see from the infographic, our size of the prize projection has increased. That’s because of new factors taken into account for the latest forecast, including retail foodservice, delivery of meal kits, two-hour delivery and more. For more insights, download the report, which dives into the changes behind our projection.

The Omnishopper and Geographic Differences

At the request of our members, this year we dived deeper into our omnishopper projections based on geographic locations. Each marketplace has its own unique situations including urban vs. rural markets, retailer capabilities and level of restaurant and retail competition. Looking at the regional and local share of online food and beverage dollar, “Nielsen found it runs from 5.4% in parts of North Central U.S. and New England to 8.3% in the Mid-Atlantic. Within localities, it ranges from 2% in Des Moines to 12% in New York City.”

This geographic information can factor into your omnichannel strategy and help you better understand how the omnishopper is mixing in-store and online shopping to meet their specific household needs.