This week on our #marketingamidcorona channel, we talked about how a couple of beer brands have gotten into it on social media.
And this made us so thirsty, we got another beery topic to talk about. But first – let’s work a little before we start chugging, shall we?
According to the “U.S. Online Grocery Survey 2020” from Coresight Research – as published on chain store age – the spikes in online groceries came mostly from the big discounters.
Not surprising as we’re talking about corona times and an economic crisis.
But! There’s a little more to it.
One interesting figure shows a 14% increase in the number of categories per purchase.
We also saw similar trends with Optimove’s data – People are buying more items per order.
Maybe, it has something to do with people trying to limit the number of different orders coming to their homes, or trying to keep exposure to supply chains and deliveries to a minimum. Perhaps keeping the amount of times people touch your purchased products as low as possible. Or maybe it just has to do with fear of running out. (Yes, like the toilet paper crisis.)
Either way, this is an important trend, perhaps mainly to smaller brands and retailers, as well as more niche players, many of which have added general groceries to their offering recently.
By doing this, they most mitigated some of COVID-19’s effects. And maybe, by seeing customers actually want more diverse baskets, it’s a good time to think about keeping this practice for post corona days.
Once customers got accustomed to, let’s say, buying bread and milk from Panera, why should Penra stop offering it?
And what does beer have to with it?
So, according to Food Dive, online alcohol sales may see a permanent rise as coronavirus alters shopping habits. “Data insights firm, Kantar, estimates that 30% of new customers who try buying booze through e-commerce for the first time during the pandemic will remain long-term users.”
“With consumers spending more time at home sipping drinks or holding virtual happy hours and get-togethers with friends, food and beverage purchases have soared – and e-commerce sales of alcohol have been far and away one of the biggest beneficiaries.”
The lesson for brands and marketers? Diverse your offering, even to areas you might not naturally think about. And, of course, drink responsibly.
Cheers!