This report provides an overview of how leading grocery companies responded to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis between January and March 2020. The companies included in this report are Albertsons, Auchan, Casino-Guichard, Carrefour, Cencosud, FEMSA, Koninlijke, Tesco, Walmart and Woolworth’s. Key strategies employed in this quarter included getting creative to meet online demand, adjusting store operations for how consumers shop now and protecting workers.
This report comes in PPT.
Online grocery purchases saw a huge increase in the first quarter of 2020 as consumers sought low-risk ways to complete their regular shopping and in some cases turned to new channels to find items that were out of stock locally. Grocery players who had been investing in omnichannel capabilities over the past few years received a sudden return on these investments as they found themselves more capable to address this demand.
Many consumers in Q1 2020 were drawn to try curbside pick-up, a form of click and collect, for the first time. Demand for home delivery outpaced retailers’ capacity in many markets, and many retailers positioned curbside pick-up as a convenient, low-cost alternative. Curbside pick-up is likely to continue to grow in the months ahead as consumers remain hesitant to spend time in-store and as non-essential retailers are increasingly allowed to use stores to fulfil online orders.
Many grocery retailers temporarily revised their return policies in Q1 2020 to support smooth store operations and to limit spread of the virus. Some retailers restricted returns only of key items such as toilet paper and hand sanitiser, while others, such as the US mass merchandiser Target, temporarily suspended all in-store returns in March.
The lead-up to the Easter holiday is an important shopping season in many countries. Easter, which took place on 12 April 2020, was heavily affected by the COVID-19 outbreak as consumers were more cautious with their spending and largely unable to meet with family to celebrate. Many grocery retailers engaged in unusual, early discounting of seasonal Easter merchandise, such as Easter-themed confectionery and flowers.
Retail is the sale of new and used goods to consumers from a business for personal or household consumption from retail outlets, kiosks, market stalls, vending, direct selling and e-commerce. Retail is the aggregation of Retail Offline and Retail E-Commerce. Excludes specialist retailers of motor vehicles, motorcycles, vehicle parts. Also excludes fuel sales, foodservice sales, rental transactions, and wholesale sales (e.g. Cash and Carry). Sales value excluding or including VAT/Sales Tax. Retail also excludes the informal retail sector. Informal retailing is retail trade which is not declared to the tax authorities. Informal retailing encompasses (a) sales generated by unregistered and unlicensed retailers, i.e. retailers operating illegally, and (b) any proportion of sales generated by a registered and licensed retailer that is not declared to the tax authorities. Unregistered and unlicensed retailers operate predominantly (although not exclusively) as street hawkers or operate open market stalls, as these channels are harder for the authorities to monitor than permanent outlets. Activities in the illegal market, which is usually understood to refer to trade in illegal, counterfeit or stolen merchandise, are included within our definition of informal retailing. Activities in the “grey market”, which is usually understood to refer to trade in legal merchandise that is sold through unauthorized channels – for example cigarettes bought legally in another country, legally imported, but sold at lower prices than in authorized channels – will be included as informal retailing if no tax is paid on sale by the retailer. However if the retailer pays tax – for example on cigarettes bought legally in another country but sold at a lower price than standard – the sale is included within formal retail.
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