Shoppers are increasingly tempted by Amazon-style services such as express delivery, instant pick-up and product subscriptions, a shopper survey has found.
A study of 1,000 shoppers revealed 14% had used Amazon’s one and two-hour delivery service Prime Now, with this number rising to 24% among Generation Y respondents.
As many as 57% would be interested in a subscription service for groceries such as Amazon Pantry if it guaranteed them the lowest price on products they usually buy, found the research by shopper marketing agency Savvy.
And 63% would trial a service such as Amazon Instant Pickup, which has rolled out in selected US locations offering click & collect in as little as two minutes.
The report, which focused on the importance of convenience to today’s shoppers, found 71% said it was more important to them now than five years ago.
Savvy’s insight director Alastair Lockhart said convenience no longer referred to just c-stores, but a growing number of services designed to make shoppers’ lives easier.
While Amazon has led the way in this area, Lockhart said other retailers were also innovating “at breakneck speed” to capture shopper attention.
He pointed to Sainsbury’s trial of a 30-minute click & collect service at its Pimlico branch in August. Nearly half of shoppers surveyed by Savvy found this appealing, while only 22% had used a supermarket’s click & collect service in the past.
Lockhart said the immediacy of the Sainsbury’s service was key to attracting customers. “Interest in these express services is very high and a lot higher than we’ve seen in click & collect in the past,” he said.
Sainsbury’s also rolled out a one-hour home delivery service in London last year, which was followed by a similar Tesco service in June, in a bid to take on Amazon’s Prime Now.
Lockhart said the change in shopper habits represented an opportunity for suppliers, too. He suggested the consumer willingness to try subscription services such as Amazon Pantry, which currently has “relatively low levels” of awareness, could enable larger companies to set up their own services. “Businesses like P&G and Unilever will have a good opportunity to go direct to market,” he said.
The younger generation was particularly keen to try out new ways to shop, Lockhart added. “Younger consumers aren’t constrained by traditional ways to shop. You just have to look at the rapid growth of businesses like Deliveroo and UberEats to see the implications for the grocery business, and they are potentially disruptive.”
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