Dallas-based Symphony RetailAI has announced the findings of an analysis of nearly 600 million shopper transactions to determine the impact of today’s omnichannel grocery shopper.
A key finding is that online household penetration reaches 6.4 percent, up 60 percent from pre-pandemic levels, and households that shop both in-store and online are growing at a rate of 10 percent year-over-year.
Symphony RetailAI analyzed 585 million shopper transactions from its platform in the U.S. and Europe between January and March.
The analysis found that omnichannel customers are more loyal than their in-store-only counterparts. Researchers also found that those who adopt omnichannel shopping habits generate incremental spend but their level of churn can be huge if retailers don’t provide an excellent customer experience from the first visit.
Researchers found that across all key measures of loyalty – primary shopper retention and positive migration toward being more loyal – omnichannel customers outperformed store-only customers. In times of declining shopper loyalty and increased competition, this demonstrates that clicks are useful to retain and augment customer loyalty better than bricks alone.
This presents a clear picture of how much more strategic it is to engage omnichannel shoppers.
Symphony RetailAI also found that customers who adopt omnichannel increase both shopping frequency and basket size, generating an incremental spend of 16 percent.
Inversely, online churn is just as impactful: 40 percent of customers abandon online channels after one purchase and even if some of them return to store, they spend almost 3 percent less than before, suggesting they begin shopping elsewhere.
“The rate of digital adoption was essentially accelerated by a decade during the pandemic,” said Laetitia Berthier, head of client management, Europe, Symphony RetailAI. “The growth today is less hyperbolic than a year ago, but the rising share of total business in e-commerce strongly points to the need to understand the value and the changing needs of the online customer. Retailers really have to tailor the online experience to their needs that are evolving quickly and very different from in-store.”
Symphony RetailAI will discuss these and additional findings from the analysis, along with a new framework to help grocers succeed in e-commerce, during a webinar July 27: “Fact vs. Fiction: What’s Really Going on with Grocery E-Commerce.”
To register for the webinar, visit offers.symphonyretailai.com.
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