Do you know that downloads of Instacart increased by 218%, downloads of Walmart’s grocery app increased by 160% and downloads of Shipt increased by 124% in comparison to before COVID-19. The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in online food sales skyrocketing. It’s pretty clear that online food shopping is on the rise and people are favoring the convenience of online purchases to visiting the store and collecting items themselves. This is understandable, as increasing numbers of people are avoiding spending time in public places and feel more comfortable in having their necessities delivered straight to their door. There are also a huge number of people who are sheltering and currently unable to leave their homes. Online grocery shopping is becoming the norm for an increasing number of Americans. So, if you want to see your business thrive, you’re going to have to jump on the bandwagon to maximize sales, profits, and success! What Kind of Food Gets the Most Benefit with Online Sales? Bearing the current pandemic in mind, there are certain foods, in particular, that you should focus your marketing and advertising efforts towards. These are quick-frozen food, convenience foods, and fresh fruit and vegetables. Each of these types of food has its own certain appeal during these uncertain times. Frozen and convenience foods tend to have a long shelf life (allowing for bulk buying and less frequent shops), while fresh fruit and vegetables are still popular and something that people are still willing to buy as and when they do order the longer-lasting foods that will serve as the base of their diets. Is It Worth Setting Up to Sell Online Even After the Crisis? Now, you may be wondering if this is a temporary fad that isn’t worth investing in or changing your business protocol around. When it comes down to it, the answer is a firm yes. The pandemic and sheltering precautions have been in place much longer than many of us initially expected and we can’t say when they will be brought to an end. Distancing measures could be in place for months to come and people are bound to prefer ordering online to standing in huge queues outside of stores - especially when summer passes and the weather becomes less favorable. It’s also predicted that these types of foods’ popularity will continue to grow throughout the rest of the pandemic and that people will still stay in these habits once the pandemic settles or passes. Demand is currently high, so you’re not going to have to invest much to secure customers - many will come across you and shop with you of their own accord. A Gallup survey has also found that 31% of shoppers (and over 50% of millennials) also noted that they’d be extremely likely to continue online shopping once the pandemic passes. Suggestions to Get Started If you want to continue generating profits, it’s important that you move your products from in-store only to online platforms. You need to keep up with consumer demands and right now, E-Commerce is highly coveted. The following suggestions can help to get the ball rolling. The first step that you need to make is to determine which of your products will sell best and which you should focus on selling online. As we earlier suggested, this could be frozen, tinned, convenience, and fresh foods. You should use as many sales platforms as possible to make your products accessible to as many consumers as possible. List on your own site, but also consider listing on Amazon, social media, and in other online locations. Provide supermarkets with high-quality images of your products for use on their sites to maximize supermarket sales. Really focus on your product photography. Remember customers only have your images to go by, so they can make or break a sale. High-quality product photographs can maximize conversion. Optimize your product photography. Different styles of photographs work better on different platforms. For your site or supermarket sites, images with a plain white background tend to work best. But lifestyle shots are better for social media. When it comes to ads, using models hands is generally successful. Make sure that nutrition information is clearly shown in product photographs. This will help individuals with allergies or dietary preferences to determine whether your product is suitable for them. If you fail to do this and leave people in doubt, you could lose sales. Further detailed images of text on packaging can be useful too. It gives your potential customers the experience of seeing the whole product as they would in a store. Including a group shot image can be great too - photography of the listed item alongside other products from the same line. This could encourage people to browse the rest of your range and potentially buy more! Lifestyle food photographs really are great. It shows your products in situ and can help people to envisage them in their own lives. It crafts an aesthetic that people can buy into. Using models with your food shots can be beneficial too. It shows someone else enjoying the product, which can help your potential customer to see themselves enjoying it too - pushing a sale.
