L’ ecommerce for grocery shopping will soon no longer be a utopia. More and more Italians are buying online, growing the number of purchasing managers who have grown up with the web and new technologies, mobile devices(smartphones and tablets) allow users to be always online and offer new ways for companies to interact with consumers.
According to research on the state of ecommerce in the FMCG sector that Upa (Associated Advertising Users) and Google commissioned from the Gfk Euisko Institute, already 13 million Italians buy on the web, but according to the current growth trend in ten years half the population will be shopping online. Narrowing the field to the FMCG sector, however, it is noted that 400 thousand people buy online, while a quarter of the purchasing managers who use the web would like to buy on the Internet.This is 2.7 million people in the household make the decision on which product to buy.
There are mainlythree reasons for the growth of ecommerce: risavings in time, economic benefits, and assortment variety. Forty-three percent appreciate the fact that by buying online they do not have to queue, find parking or other hassles that steal time devoted to non-work activities. 37% hope to find great deals, perhaps even comparing the price on multiple ecommerce sites. In contrast, 32 percent recognize the web as having much greater availability and assortment than traditional retail outlets. Again, the variety of sites and portals to choose from plays in favor of online sales.
What are the barriers to be broken down? 82% of users fear a dematerialization of the buying process, that is, a step that causes them to lose direct contact with the seller and the goods. Think, for example, of all those who want to touch before deciding. Seventy percent are uncomfortable with a reversal along the process that leads them to the purchase decision: on the Web they must already have a clear idea and cannot walk around the store looking at what attracts them. Finally, logistics with 63% being disliked by the constraint of home attendance and 67% not wanting to pay an additional cost.
How can these obstacles be overcome? The first method is tointeract with users and build a path that accompanies and protects them during their purchasing process. The second is the use of delivery points (on the example of Amazon’s Locker Delivery or Google’s Bufferbox) and ecommerce management that favors bulk purchases for reduced delivery cost. But above all, a lot of information is needed because there are still few users who call themselves experts in digital technologies, and these learn information mainly from word of mouth (60%) and still little from the web or traditional media (49% and 40& of respondents, respectively.
“The time has come to get involved and experiment with new ways of offline and online integration in order to make the most of all brand assets – is the invitation of Carlo D’Asaro Biondo, president South East Europe, Middle East and Africa at Google – The companies that will best grasp the challenges and potential of ecommerce today will be the tomorrow’s winners.”
