The race for grocery delivery is on, and it’s one of the key battlefronts of the great “clash of the titans” taking place among Walmart, Amazon, Kroger and other grocers. It’s also a fight among brands within Walmart – everyone wants to know how they can capitalize on grocery delivery and we want to give you some digital strategy insight to set you in the right direction.

Consumers want more, faster, cheaper, easier

Grocery pickup and delivery are not new, yet they are new again somehow. Why? It’s simple: ecommerce and gig economy delivery models have made it easier for customers to ask for faster, cheaper and more convenient on-demand solutions. This has driven startups to flood the space and corner their edge on demand for delivery, grocery being on the forefront. In turn, this means more options and competition to drive prices down and force new disruptive labor models to support and capture demand.

So it’s not new but… Online grocery delivery and pickup are the e-commerce disruptors of retail that were just a little late to the party.

The grocery basket is evolving, but marketing constructs are stuck in a rut

Winning share of basket used to be relatively simple: get on the list, on the consideration set and get in the basket of that semi-predictable stock-up trip. Sure, there are still significant seasonal and regional factors at play, but you’re losing business if that’s all your marketing strategy is set up to win.

Retail & supplier marketers operated as an extension of the merch-driven business cycles revolving around demand planning and replenishment. This worked extremely well when the “core customer” of Walmart was a financially constrained one, but with employment and consumer confidence at record highs and cultural shifts towards quality of life, customers will pay a premium for time and convenience.

And that means customer demand patterns are all over the place. Here are just a few ways that comes to light…

Get rid of the idea that Walmart & their customers are behind this trend

Walmart recently passed Amazon in the race for OGP, and the proof is in the new online grocery behaviors being formed. Gone are the days when you could defer your online grocery strategy because “the Walmart customer is a digital laggard” – it’s just not true anymore. Is your merchant partner at Walmart lagging? Maybe, but everyone is feeling the pressure to pivot into OGP & OG Delivery at Walmart and figure out what it means for omni-grocery.