Pressed for time and running out of groceries? No problem—if you use one of the expanding list of grocery store mobile apps. As the following Supermarket News article reports, grocery vertical mobile apps are rapidly gaining in popularity among consumers.
“Have that grocery app yet? It’s a good chance that most of your family and friends already do.
Digital marketing and consumer behavior specialist eMarketer said grocery mobile apps are some of the nation’s fastest-growing apps. In 2018, 18 million U.S. adults will use a grocery app at least monthly, up 49.6% versus last year, according to the New York-based firm’s latest app usage forecast.
By next year, eMarketer projects, more than one in five adult smartphone shoppers (22.6 million) will use a grocery app to order food, representing 25.6% year-over-year growth. The number of adult grocery smartphone app users is expected to reach 25.2 million in 2020, 27.9 million in 2021 and 30.4 million in 2022.
For its forecast, eMarketer defined “grocery app” as a mobile app whose main function enables users to order fresh produce and perishables on demand, such as apps from AmazonFresh, FreshDirect, Peapod and Walmart Grocery. That also includes meal kit subscription services like Blue Apron, HelloFresh, Plated and Sun Basket.”
In recent research reports on merchant services and mobile payment topics, Mercator has identified the grocery vertical as a major growth opportunity for mobile order and pay apps. Amazon has jumped in by recently offering Prime members service of less than 1 hour at Whole Foods. Many other large grocery chains such as Kroger are investing big on the technology and logistics to support this fast-growing sales channel. Look for more marketing of grocery mobile apps as a way to win and keep customers.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Service at Mercator Advisory Group
