So, we know what the Digital Shelf is, why it’s become such a priority for retailers and CPGs, and we’ve looked at some of the different business models companies are choosing to adopt in this space. But that’s enough about the businesses involved for now - it’s time to focus on the biggest player in the eCommerce space: the consumer.

As we’ve already discussed, shopper behavior online is vastly different to shopper behavior offline and as the range of online grocery channels and touchpoints continues to grow, so too does the variety of different grocery missions that can be fulfilled...

The primary shopper mission at bricks and clicks and pure play retailers is the ‘Main Shop’, where shoppers seek to buy groceries for the week ahead, stock up on essentials and purchase meal ingredients.

Other missions include the ‘Meal for Tonight’, which is pretty self-explanatory, the ‘Distress Mission’, where consumers replenish urgently needed items and the ‘Special Occasion Mission’, where people shop for things like gifts or items for a dinner party. Companies that offer rapid delivery services are increasingly being positioned to service these three missions, but the large bulk of online grocery spend today is still driven by the Main Shop.

Convenience is the biggest driver behind grocery shopping online, and here the ‘Main Shop’ is typically more planned and focused than in store. Shoppers tend to be less open to impulse buys than in the physical store, but they’re more likely to purchase multipacks or bulk buy items. And, the differences don’t stop there. Not only are shoppers more focused when shopping online, but the ways they find and discover a brand's products are entirely different...

While there are variations across different retailers, the two main methods of navigation that consumers use to get around retailers’ websites are the on-site search function and by browsing favorites lists, which are made up of products shoppers have previously bought. However, it’s not all about search and favorites - 90% of shoppers use more than one method of navigation: they also discover and purchase products through product menu pages, offers pages, events pages and even checkout pages.

Shoppers also browse for items and complete their shopping missions across different devices. These will all have different screen sizes, which impacts the number of products a shopper sees when they scroll down the page in search of the items they need. They’ll likely use a combination of laptop, tablet and mobile devices to build their order over several days, and many shoppers also amend their basket before they finally checkout.

With this in mind, it’s critical that CPG suppliers work with retailers to ensure that their products are easy to find and buy, and that they’re presented alongside content that encourages sales across all relevant touchpoints. But how can a business go about achieving all of this? Stay with us to find out...

Online Consumer Behavior