Future of grocery retail shopping : challenges and opportunities in e-commerce grocery shopping

Abstract

Advancement in technology has potential to significantly disrupt the grocery retail market in the U.S. by channeling sales from offline brick-and-mortar stores such as Walmart and Kroger to online e-retailers such as Amazon, Peapod, FreshDirect, and Instacart. Ecommerce grocery retailers have invested heavily in technology, warehouses, and transportation fleets. However, as of 2016, e-commerce grocery sales still only contributed approximately 3% of the total grocery retail sales in the U.S. This thesis first identifies and explains the obstacles to the expected growth of the e-commerce grocery market, and then introduces strategies for ameliorating these challenges and sustaining competitive advantage.