Top trends in grocery shopping for 2016

December 28, 2015

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By John Karolefski

It won’t be your mother’s shopping trip in 2016. Get ready for some creative changes as more grocers digitize their stores, while ramping up promotions and dining options to enliven what traditionally has been a mundane shopping trip.

And for homebodies or those too busy with their exciting lives to visit a grocery store, more food retailers will offer the option of ordering groceries online and having them delivered. An alternative is having ordered purchases waiting at the store’s curbside for pick-up.

Here are the top trends for 2016 that indicate traditional shopping patterns continue to evolve:

Shopping Online: Ordering groceries online has been growing steadily for a few years, but will surge in 2016. Many supermarkets that have not offered such an option will jump aboard. It has been estimated that 10% of grocery sales in the U.S. will be online by 2025.

H-E-B is ready for the future. The San Antonio-based operator of more than 370 supermarkets in Texas and Mexico just opened an online store. Hy-Vee's Aisles Online grocery service is now available in all 240 stores across its eight-state region in the Midwest.

More than 65 other grocers have partnered with Instacart, which lets consumers order groceries online and pairs them with a Personal Shopper who hand picks items at customers’ favorite stores and delivers to the home. Also, there will be more testing of curbside pick-up of groceries for those shoppers who may want to hop into the store for a forgotten item or to hand-pick produce.

Digitizing the Supermarket: Retailers will look to engage smartphone-carrying shoppers, especially Millennials who will account for most grocery purchases as they start families. Many grocers such as Marsh Supermarkets and others have equipped stores with beacons. These Bluetooth-enabled devices connect with smartphones nearby. Beacons rely on apps to receive their signal, which then triggers ads, coupons or product information to be sent to shoppers, who opt to receive the signal. More grocers will test beacons in 2016.

Also, more grocers will install Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) that display prices and sometimes ads and nutritional information. Some two thousand digital Shelf Edge devices are installed in the packaged food aisles of a Kroger store in cold spring, Kentucky. Plans call for rolling out the system after a successful test. Meanwhile, all of Kroger’s stores are being equipped with temperature monitor sensors in the refrigerated and frozen food cases to ensure product quality and safety.

Shrinking the Supermarket: Singles and smaller families will learn that less is more as grocers continue to open smaller supermarkets to cater to their needs, especially in growing urban areas. These shoppers will cruise the perimeter of the store for prepared food, dairy, bakery and produce. Less space is needed for packaged food and ingredients in the Center Store because cooking from scratch is declining and more of those products are ordered online and delivered to shoppers if they need them.

The case for smaller formats has been proven by Aldi and Trader Joe’s whose stores average 15,000 sq. ft. and 10,000 sq. ft. respectively. Meanwhile, Hy-Vee now operates four 14,000 sq. ft. Mainsteet stores, Ahold has opened the first of its 10,000 sq. ft. “bfresh” grocery stores in Boston, and further north near Portland, Maine, Hannaford opened a 20,000 sq. ft. store with a focus on fresh foods.

Entertaining in Stores: While online grocery ordering and smaller stores are trending, more operators of traditionally large supermarkets will take advantage of their space to lure customers with special events. More product sampling, cooking demos and nutritional tours will take place.

For example, Jungle Jim’s, the massive food emporium in Columbus, Ohio, stages wine and cheese festivals. Chefs at H-E-B stores in San Antonio prepare a variety of recipes every day as part of the Cooking Connection demos. At Giant Eagle’s Market District store in Solon, Ohio, it is Food and Wine Friday every week. For six dollars, shoppers get tickets for sampling six wines and eating hors d’oeuvres at serving stations throughout the store (wine samples are third of a glass). Live music is provided as customers sip, nosh and grocery shop.

Dining in Stores: Before they go about their grocery shopping, customers can have a bite to eat or something to drink in the store. Operators of many new large supermarkets are including a café with a light menu to nourish customers.

For example, the lunch crowd at Mariano’s in Wheaton, Ill. can enjoy pizza and other edibles in the café. Giant Eagle’s Market District also has a large café with a full-sized bar nearby. Starbucks are being added to the perimeter of more supermarkets for a quick coffee break while shopping.