Posted by Are the days of clipping coupons, hand selecting your produce, and responding to flash sales in aisle nine behind us?
With over 150 million Americans using online grocery shopping platforms and apps, half of all US adults today are placing digital grocery orders for delivery or curbside pickup, according to 2026 data by Capital One Shopping Research.
That means grocers have a brave new world of advertising to navigate – and the big question, how do they reach shoppers in this new digital environment?
It’s not about nabbing the coveted corner displays or prominent shelf placement in the aisle any longer. It’s a new era in grocery shopping, and if you want to land your product in someone’s grocery cart, that often begins inside the parameters of an app.
Online grocery shopping now equates to nearly one-fifth of all grocery spending. One third of shoppers say they always use the same platform, and 70 percent say they have a preferred app, according to data from Ibotta.
Digital grocery shopping is all about making it quick and easy for the consumer to place repeated purchases, with the convenience of completing a shopping experience in just minutes – rather than spending an hour pushing a cart through aisles, waiting in line at check-out, or bagging your own groceries. Options like “buy again” buttons, subscriptions, and personalized recommendations are all designed to make the experience more convenient.
So how do you get a customer to buy your spaghetti sauce over a competing brand? Until now, brands always competed with other products placed on shelves. In grocery apps, they’re competing against the customer’s usual routine. The challenge lies in getting a consumer to make a change, switch to your brand, and try something new.
Promotions are one answer. Over half of shoppers say they’ll look for promotions before deciding what to put in their digital cart. Nine out of ten say promotions heavily influence what they end up buying. A third of shoppers say they’re almost always willing to switch products if a similar item shows up on their screen indicating a special.
Cash-back offers are another effective incentive. Over half of shoppers said they would use online grocery platforms more often if there were cash-back offers available on a regular basis – a reminder that creating value for shoppers is high on their priority list.
That doesn’t mean your local grocery stores are on the brink of extinction. In fact, they still control a comfortable 80 percent of all grocery shopping transactions. How are these brick-and-mortar stores adapting to the app culture, and what are they doing to capture a piece of that pie? Get the full story.