The pandemic brought many changes into our lives, one of them is the way we shop for groceries. The pandemic period became a massive introduction to online grocery shopping. As a result, online sales at convenience stores continue to increase from month to month since then. More specifically, if we look back to the second wave of covid-19 cases in Indonesia, where the government implemented Emergency PPKM in July 2021, the chart shows that online sales increased significantly due to mobility restrictions.

In general, almost half of the respondents have experienced online grocery shopping. Especially for the younger woman group, more than half (59%) of them enjoy online grocery shopping. 

Moreover, many of them said that online grocery shopping is more practical because they don't need to carry heavy groceries and don't need to queue at minimarkets. Apart from that, they can also get lots of promos and fast delivery from the online grocery. On the other hand, those who still hesitate to try online grocery shopping feel that they need to ensure the product's condition directly. In addition, the following reasons are because they are not interested in online grocery shopping and find it difficult to use online shopping apps, especially for those aged > 35 years old.

Then what if the pandemic is over? Will they still buy groceries online? The survey shows that the majority of young generations will continue online grocery shopping. Meanwhile, in contrast to those aged 35-50 years, they will return to shop in-store because they prefer to see the product directly and find it difficult to use online shopping apps.

Speaking of online grocery, if we look at the big picture in Indonesia, all regions show significant growth in online grocery sales during 2021, especially in the province of Sumatera.  

Then what are the most purchased products when doing online grocery? Data shows that the top 3 most purchased products during online grocery shopping in 2021, are daily needs, baby milk & food, and personal care products.

For the payment methods, e-wallet is the most used payment method for online grocery shopping in 2021. This is because payments using e-wallets are often have extra cashback, making shopping more efficient. Apart from that, other payment methods that commonly used are cash on delivery, bank transfer, member points, and vouchers.

Furthermore, if we look into the basket size comparison between online vs. offline transactions, basket size members who make online transactions are bigger than those who shop offline. Because when we do online grocery shopping, the online retail apps will record our behavioral and transactional data as a reminder for the next purchase in terms of the quantity of the item that we routinely purchase or recommend something that we may need. Meanwhile, when we shop directly at the store, there are often items that we forget to buy.

We hope these insights are beneficial for you, and if you would like to know more about consumer behavior, feel free to contact us.