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Food for thought: Innovation within the grocery sector

Delivery
Image credits: SFIO CRACHO/Shutterstock

COVID-19 has been the ultimate disrupter for UK businesses, regardless of their sector.  

However, I would argue that it is the grocery sector which has faced the greatest shakeup. Indeed, many consumers who had previously been regular visitors to their local stores were forced to conduct the majority of their grocery shopping online, due to strict social distancing measures. 

What’s more, the consumer shift to online shopping appears to be here to stay; recent statistics have revealed that 43% of consumers plan to continue to shop for their groceries online as often as they did throughout the pandemic, whilst just 18% stated that they would return to their bricks and mortar retailers.  

To meet this demand, retailers will need to adjust their operations. This may not be much of an issue for larger supermarket chains; after all, they have the financial and human resource to invest in sophisticated technology updates to ensure efficient stock management and tracking software, as well as efficient delivery processes. However, local retailers with smaller turnover and teams may struggle to do so, meaning that they could become priced out of the online grocery market altogether. ...