Top 50 Grocers: How Amazon’s Entrance Has Led to Unprecedented Omnichannel Ramp-Ups

And it’s not just the big three that are preparing for battle. H-E-B (No. 6), for instance, piloted a self-checkout app in San Antonio while also acquiring delivery service Favor; Meijer (No. 11) launched a scan-as-you-shop app for skipping checkout; Target (No. 12), among many other initiatives, purchased two services — Birmingham, Ala.-based Shipt and San Francisco-based Grand Junction — to boost its delivery capabilities; and even hard-discounter Aldi (No. 8), often seen as immune to most market threats, launched and is expanding grocery delivery via Instacart.
Food retailers have made tremendous strides in their omnichannel programs since news of Amazon’s Whole Foods buy hit last June. Comparing Progressive Grocer’s 2018 Annual Report, which was published last month, with its 2017 Annual Report, more than double the number of grocers polled (28 percent versus 12.2 percent) have a fully integrated omnichannel strategy in place, while the number of those with no omnichannel services at all declined from 46.5 percent to 32.7 percent. This corresponds with the fact that “keeping up with advancements in technology” shot up to No. 3 from No. 9 in the list of issues that respondents said keep them up at night.
Amazon now has a prominent spot on the Super 50 list — one that could become even more so in the next year. Clearly, however, its competitors are doing — and will continue to do — everything they can to keep the Seattle-based online retailer at bay.