The coronavirus pandemic has made a lot of changes in our lives. People tend to do everything online. Together with online shopping, people are also buying their groceries online. In USA online grocery shopping is trending and having a long-lasting effect on the supermarket business. 

In American life, people primarily shop online. They do online shopping for books, for electronics, and even order their dinner online through delivery apps. Most of the buyers in America still choose to buy herbs, meat, and other edibles from grocery stores. According to Nielsen, In America, only 4% of grocery vending came online last year.
 
Now in this pandemic, while buyers are trapped in their homes, online shopping of grocery is increasing rapidly. People are downloading grocery buying apps increasingly. Such as, downloading of Walmart grocery app is increased 160% as compared to the previous year. Similarly, the download of Instacart is raised to 218% and Shipt up to 124%.
  
Reviews of traders:
 
JJ Fleeman is the chief e-commerce officer of Ahold Delhaize. He is the owner of many brands such as Stop & Shop, the Food Lion, and courier service Peapod. According to JJ Fleeman, the buyers over the age of 60 are coming online more than the young ones. A very few youngsters are coming into this channel.

After the observation of the last seven days, the interpreters of Gordon Haskett Research Advisors said on Sunday that the tierce of customers was buying grocery online from almost past seven days while about 41% of consumers were purchasing grocery using apps, for the first time.

Doug Baker is head of work relations at FMI, a trade association for food agents. He said that the response and behaviour of customers always change in the time of catastrophe or any pandemic. Due to this pandemic which we are experiencing these days, many people are developing new skills and learning how to do online shopping and buying items using different apps and websites.

Reviews of Customers:

A girl named Maria Alvarado lives in Phoenix, United States. She used to buy her groceries physically at Safeway or Walmart. Last week, she tried online grocery shopping from Walmart app for the first time. She is planning to continue using this facility for online grocery shopping. She said that even when we will be recovered from the pandemic and the situation will be alright; I will possibly use this online service. It’s so easy to use.

Walmart, Albertsons, Hy-Vee, Meijer, Stop & Shop, etc. are big traders. They have been trying new ways to carry out orders in the last few years.  

Dark Stores:

These grocers are structuring new automatic mini storerooms inside their shops, opening their “dark stores”. Dark stores are the places that seem to market but actually; they are locked for the buyers. Here the salespersons prepare the orders and make deliveries.

Difficulties in online grocery shopping and their solution:

However, the crowded demand for online grocery services because of coronavirus, causes prolonged wait, dropping off orders, and interruption in different areas of the country. 
 The executive of Brick Meets Click said that the rush in grocery purchasing orders is causing technical, operational difficulties.

The traders are struggling to solve these technicalities and appointing more workers to do this job.
According to Fleeman, the firm is connecting more web servers that can help us to operate the growing demands of orders and providing more options for consumers to improve their order delivery. Experts say that this move, in this pandemic, can remould the trading industry.

Seth Sigman said that this pitiful time is speeding up the change in customers’ purchasing. This is urging more new customers to Walmart.

Challenges for Small grocers:

Customers are acquiring online grocery shopping that may pressurize the small grocery shops. These small traders have not enough money so that they can manage their online delivery framework. The online delivery system is less beneficial for shopkeepers than buyers.

A critic for BMO Capital Markets, Kelly Bania, said that, although the breakout of coronavirus has sped up the choice of online grocery shopping for people, at the same time it is leaving long-lasting problems for the small grocers.

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