Younger investors and female investors are more likely to consider buying groceries online.

It’s not a money-making proposition, but several new online companies including Amazon are building a market for providing home-delivered groceries purchased online.
Established companies like Peapod succeed in some markets, but others come and go as the process of delivery gets in the way of the freshness of the products. AmazonFresh, which has operated in the Seattle area for a couple of years, is looking to expand into the San Francisco area markets as an experiment to see if Amazon can provide the service cost-effectively in other markets.
The idea of buying groceries online has not caught on widely, at least in the affluent investor community.
In a Spectrem’s Millionaire Corner study of affluent investors, 31 percent said they would be willing to buy groceries online. That includes 61 percent of investors under the age of 40 and 36 percent of female investors.
Among investors who said they liked the idea of online grocery purchases, 40 percent said they just didn’t want to have to deal with shopping in a grocery store. Interestingly, it was the women who were most against going into a store (43 percent) while men had less of a negative connotation to shopping at the market (36 percent).
Time is money and 29 percent of affluent investors said grocery shopping online is a time-saver. That was especially true of young investors, with 50 percent of those under the age of 40 pointing to the time element involved in shopping for groceries online.
Seven percent said shopping for groceries at home would eliminate the hassle of carrying bags and bags of newly purchased food items from car to home.
Among those not willing to buy groceries online, 72 percent said they like to pick their food out in person. Eleven percent said grocery shopping online is more expensive (there is a charge for the service) while 8 percent said going to the store provides the opportunity to see new items or specials that online shopping could not provide.
Five percent said they did not think the food would be as fresh as if picked up by the buyer at the store.
Online grocery store services are apparently not well known. Only 24 percent of investors have heard of Peapod, 21 percent have heard about online shopping from their local grocer, and 18 percent have heard about AmazonFresh. Only 3 percent have heard of NetGrocer, a competitor with Peapod.

 

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