Retailers have a lot of room to grow when it comes to in-store digital enablement options, such as mobile coupons, lists and shopping apps, and in-store Wi-Fi availability. Use of online or mobile coupons (14%) and downloading a retailer/loyalty program app on a mobile phone to receive information or offers (13%) are the most cited forms of in-store digital engagement in use today among UAE respondents, with about 45% and 42%, respectively, willing to use them in the future. Mobile shopping lists are used by 12% of UAE respondents, and 43% say they’re willing to use one when it is available. About one-in-10 UAE respondents say they log in to store Wi-Fi to receive information or offers (12%). 44%, however, are willing to use this option in the future.
WHO IS SHOPPING ONLINE?
The growth of online CPG sales has been driven in part by the maturation of digital natives, the consumers who grew up with digital technology (especially Generation Z). These consumers have an unprecedented enthusiasm for and comfort with technology, and online shopping is a deeply ingrained behavior. For example, 21% of Generation Z (ages 15-20) respondents say they’re ordering groceries online for home delivery, compared with 17% of Millennials (ages 21-34), 19% of Generation X (ages 35-49) and 8% of Baby Boomers (ages 50-64) respondents. Younger respondents are also the most willing to use all of the e-commerce options in the future.
Increasingly, retailers are introducing e-commerce models that make it even easier for tech-savvy, time-crunched consumers to get the items they need. Twelve percent of UAE respondents say they use an automatic online subscription service, in which orders are routinely replenished at a specified frequency, and more than half (61%) are willing to do so in the future. In 2011, Tesco (Homeplus) introduced the first virtual supermarket in a South Korean subway system, and the model has spread to other markets. Today, 15% of UAE respondents say they’re already using a virtual store and about two-third (67%) are willing to use them when they become available.
A smaller number of consumers are using “click and collect” services in which consumers order groceries online for pickup at a store or other location. Just over one-in-10 UAE respondents say they order groceries online and pick them up using a drive-thru (11%). Slightly fewer order online and pick them up in-store or for curb-side pick-up (both 10%). More than half of UAE respondents, however, are willing to use these online options in the future (62% for drive-thru, 62% for in-store and 59% for curb-side pickup).
