E-commerce has reached the grocery aisles. In fact, online grocery shopping has nearly doubled in the last year. A report by the Food Marketing Institute and Nielsen shows that 49 percent of U.S. consumers are now shopping for groceries online. And retailers from Amazon’s Whole Foods to Target, Kroger and Sam’s Club are investing in it too.
Selling fresh foods online is very different than selling cosmetics, apparel, electronics or household goods in the online space. Perishable foods have a much shorter lifecycle and that means special handling and packaging materials.