With more grocery stores going online, shopping for food isn't what it used to be — but that isn't the only technological change having an impact on the industry.
Digital marketing plays a bigger role than it ever has before, says Chris Emergui. He's the president of Sale Whale, an online platform that alerts customers when grocery items are on sale.
"Four years ago, maybe 14 per cent of people were influenced before they went to do their grocery shopping ... by something they experienced online," Emergui said.
"Now that number is closer to 56 per cent and it keeps on rising."
Emergui is in Vancouver this week, speaking about digital grocery trends at Grocery and Specialty Food West conference and trade show.
"It's the shoppers themselves who have changed," he told Michelle Eliot, guest host of CBC's .
On-demand desire
Emergui compared grocery shopping to any other kind of contemporary consumption — like television, for example, where Netflix has brought in a new world of easy and immediate access.
"On demand would be the best term to sort of use," Emergui said. "With on demand now, every shopper wants a different kind of experience."
That doesn't necessarily mean more choices, though.
A grocery shop with 25 different kinds of yogurt is often less appealing to a consumer because trying to make a choice with so many options slows down the shopping experience.
"Ultimately, what we are seeing is we want to have a faster experience," Emergui said.
"You are seeing a lot of stores now that used to have 50,000 items in them pare it down to 30,000 or even lower because of that sort of indecision."
Online shopping
While online shopping has taken off, especially with large companies like Amazon offering groceries in the U.S., in-store grocery purchases and pick-ups still dominate.
"While two-thirds of us will at least experience or try online grocery shopping in the next five years … it will still only be about 12 per cent of our total purchases," Emergui said.
So it still comes down to remaining competitive, he said, and using tools like coupons to draw in customers.
But even in this case, the medium has changed, with digital coupons on smartphones taking over from flyers and cut-outs from newspapers.
"If you are a grocer, you need to understand that most of the time we are going to be influenced by something that is happening in the Internet world," Emergui said.
With files from The Early Edition.