Local Online Shopping Options Emerge
Numbers don’t lie, and the numbers show that online shopping is growing ever more popular. Take a look at the chart below from the marketing firm Invesp for proof.
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL RETAIL SALES
Two years ago, Foodtown partnered with a new company called Freshop that provides the software for the Foodtown.com shopping website. Brian Moyer, CEO of Freshop said, “We built a website for Foodtown that is equal if not better in functionality compared to all the major online sites by focusing completely on grocery and continuing to enhance the site with guidance from 500 other grocers like Foodtown.” The site gives online shoppers access to tens of thousands of grocery items carried in each local Foodtown store. Shoppers have the option of one- click ordering, saving lists for easy reorder, adding items to a list right from the electronic weekly flyer, and more. Items can then be delivered to the customer or picked up in store. The bottom line is that local companies that sit back and do nothing to compete with the quickly advancing online shopping services may find themselves shrinking rapidly over the next several years. The companies that take action now and plan for a future that includes online shopping will have the best chance of survival for themselves, their employees, theirs stores, and serving their local communities.
RETAIL SALES (TRILLIONS)
YEAR
2014
$1,316 5.9%
2015
$1,592 6.7%
2016
$1,888 7.4%
2017
$2,197 8.2%
2018
$2,489 8.8%
Most online sales are coming from massive corporations with products coming from huge warehouses, often hundreds of miles from local communities. As a result, local retail jobs are becoming harder to come by. As more sales migrate online, more retail jobs disappear from our communities. In an article from The Pueblo Times, Frank Badillo, director of research at MacroSavvy LLC, spoke about just how fast these jobs are vanishing. “In 2017, 66,500 U.S. retail jobs disappeared,” he said. “In the past decade, about 1 out of every 7 jobs have vanished in the hardest-hit sectors like clothing and consumer electronics.” Online Shopping at Local Companies However, consumers are starting to take notice, and they are shifting their online purchases back to local companies. Shopping local is important to many people. If a shopper can get the same goods at competitive prices with a local online option, they are going to take it to “save local jobs,” and keep the existing retail fabric in place within the community. Noah Katz, co-president of PSK Supermarkets, which operates 13 grocery stores in New York, is hoping that people will want to shop online locally if they can get the same service provided by the major companies. His company, Foodtown, provides a personal online shopping service whereby “personal shoppers” go up and down the aisles fulfilling online grocery orders. The shopping teams “get to know” their customers wants and dislikes when it comes to their grocery list. Katz added, “Making our service more of a personal shopping service is how we are going to beat the big chains at their own game.” Katz also stated that in his stores, shoppers pay the same prices online as they do in store, which is not the case with many of the other more expensive online services.
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