Digital CPG Blog

Media Post reports:

Nielsen and MyWebGrocer are forming a new partnership to track the fast-growing area of online grocery sales. While online grocery shopping accounts for just 2% of total U.S. consumer packaged goods sales, it is expected to explode in the next few years, growing from $12 billion now to $25 billion by 2014.

That increase “is because we’re seeing big changes in how consumers connect to retailers, between the growth of mobile and the growth of iPads,” John Burbank, president, Strategic Initiatives, Nielsen, tells Marketing Daily. “Consumers can now shop anywhere they might be, at any given moment. That’s a big change from 10 years ago, when they had to be at their home computers.” He adds that consumer acceptance of online grocery shopping is considerably higher in Europe.

As the online market grows, Burbank says, traditional stores, such as Walmart and Tesco, will continue to evolve their online offerings, competing with the likes of FreshDirect, Peapod and Alice.com.

But the distinction between online and instore shopping continues to get fuzzier, as consumers switch channels more fluidly. Nielsen reports that 25% of U.S. CPG purchases are researched online, including retailer weekly ads, and that 97% of the time, the researched product is eventually purchased.

So, are you online yet? What’s stopping you?