Inmar Analytics 2019 Future of Food Retailing Report Sheds Light on the Biggest Trends in the Food Retailing Industry

Report Finds e-Commerce Far Outpaced All Others with Internet Sales of Food and Consumables Growing Close to 22 Percent in 2018

/EIN News/ -- Winston-Salem, NC, Sept. 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inmar Analytics 2019 Future of Food Retailing Report Sheds Light on the Biggest Trends in the Food Retailing Industry

Report Finds e-Commerce Far Outpaced All Others with Internet Sales of Food and Consumables Growing Close to 22 Percent in 2018

Winston-Salem, NC.– September 10, 2019 – Inmar, a data-driven technology-enabled services company, today announced the release of Inmar Analytics 2019 Future of Food Retailing Report. This annual report provides a detailed look into the food retailing industry in order to identify and quantify market dynamics, trends and behaviors. Additionally, the report recaps the previous year’s activities and provides projections for the next five years in terms of dollar share and store count across numerous channels and formats.

The food retail industry is changing from both internal and external factors, and retailers and food manufacturers must innovate to compete for market share. As omnichannel grocery shopping proliferates, and shoppers seek convenient access to more nutritious foods, those channels and formats most favored by consumers will continue to change. Understanding, anticipating and proactively accommodating shifting shopper demand must take priority among retailers if they’re to protect sales and share and remain competitive in the midst of accelerating marketplace transformation.

The traditional grocery channel still commands the largest share of sales generated

from grocery and consumable products at 44 percent. However, that share is shrinking as traditional grocery continues to lose share to non-traditional grocery channels. Since 1988, traditional grocery has lost over half of its market share (down to 44 percent from 90 percent).  Additionally, the volume of e-Commerce sales at traditional retailers continued to rise, as well among formats in the non-traditional channel. In fact, e-Commerce sales for food and consumables totaled $58 billion in 2018, an increase of 21.7 percent over 2017.

“Established CPG brands and grocery retailers need to embrace new strategies for driving growth in a marketplace where sales volume and profit are suffering continuous contraction, with an increased focus on innovation,” said Jim Hertel, Senior Vice President at Inmar Analytics. “There are no shortages when it comes to innovative products--from plant-based protein to non-milk to clean meat to CBD oil-infused, the ongoing proliferation of “alternative” offerings would appear to promise real opportunity for successfully activating a shopper base that is seriously committed to dietary improvement involving sustainability and responsible sourcing. The first step toward successful innovation is determining which trends are here to stay through accessing existing data; mining and modeling that data for actionable insights is the second.”

Key findings from the report include:

Traditional Grocery: Sales for the traditional grocery channel fell 1.1 percent to $547.6 billion in 2018. Market share for this channel declined to 43.8 percent of overall grocery sales, representing a 1.7 percent decrease from 2017.

Convenience Stores: Convenience stores experienced sales gain of 2.2 percent to $201.7 billion despite a slight decrease in number of stores (1.1 percent). Market share for the format remained flat at 16.1 percent, and food accounted for roughly two-thirds of convenience store sales.

Non-Traditional Grocery: Sales in the non-traditional grocery channel increased 1.9 percent to $500.6 billion. The top-performing formats in this channel for 2018 were dollar store and wholesale club, with sales gains of 5.7 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively. However, drug stores experienced a significant sales decline of 6.0 percent in food and consumables.

e-Commerce: e-Commerce sales for food and consumables totaled $58 billion in 2018, an increase of 21.7 percent over 2017. The volume of e-Commerce sales at traditional retailers continued to rise as well; however, Amazon continued to dominate the space for year-over-year food and consumables sales, increasing 23.5 percent in 2018, totaling $21.1 billion for the year.

For more information on Inmar’s 2019 Future of Food Retailing Report, please visit here.

About Inmar Intelligence

With an eye to accelerating commerce, we reimagine everyday business challenges through advanced analytics, technology-enabled and market-driven solutions built to solve some of industries’ biggest obstacles to growth. Inmar’s customer-centric approach is evident through our success helping companies dynamically engage audiences, build brand loyalty, create efficiencies and drive profitable growth.

We help leading Fortune 500 companies and emerging brands stay relevant and propel growth while providing their consumers with personalized and precision-driven tools to save money, improve health and safety, and more conveniently go about their lives.

For more than 35 years, we have served retailers, manufacturers, healthcare providers, government and employers as their trusted intermediary and helped them redefine innovation. For more information about Inmar, please follow Inmar on Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook, or call (866) 440-6917.

Holly Pavlika
                    Inmar, Inc.
                    (336) 770-3596
                    holly.pavlika@inmar.com