Nielsen, a leading global research and measurement firm, has recently suggested that annual online grocery sales (although they state it as CPG, or consumer packaged goods) will double to $25 billion by 2014. Currently, CPG sales are right around $12 billion which is up from about $5 billion in 2006.
For the most part, Nielsen attributes the growth to the increasing number of 20somethings who grew up with technology and are comfortable with all things digital — even things like online grocery shopping which their parents and grandparents have almost totally shunned. Despite the comfort that young people have with the latest technology, Nielsen still believes it will take time for consumers to get used to shopping at online grocery stores. Of course, this suggests that online grocery shopping has significantly more potential than $25 billion per year — perhaps projecting into a $100 billion plus industry in a decade or more.
Online grocery shopping has a pretty lengthy history as far as web businesses go. In the late 1990s business such as Webvan, Peapod and Homegrocer. Peapod was one of the few to survive the late 90s dot com bust and is currently thriving. Other than Peapod, growing online grocery stores can be found at FreshDirect, AmazonFresh and YourGrocer. Logic would dictate that, based on the projected increased sales in this space, the list of online food retailers is set to explode in the coming years.
Source: blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/five-things-to-know-about-online-grocery-shopping/