E-Commerce: New ways in online grocery shopping

Published on: March 1, 2019 / Update from: September 24, 2021 - Author: Konrad Wolfenstein

Individual logistics concepts for e-commerce in the food trade

Online shopping has long been part of everyday life. The Germans are still cautious in only one area: food and beverages only make up a small share of e-commerce. It won't stay that way.

The e-grocery industry needs individual logistics concepts

With a peak value of 11.5 percent purchasing volume, the Germans are European champions in online shopping. Most popular: clothing, books and shoes. Shopping over the Internet has long been part of everyday life for the majority of our population. The Germans are still cautious in only one area: food and beverages only make up an extremely small share of e-commerce. But it won't stay that way. The food trade of the future will continue to develop – and with it logistics.

Despite the increasing supply from providers such as Amazon Fresh or the Rewe delivery service, the proportion of online grocery shoppers in Germany is currently just three percent. The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture found this in the 2018 nutrition report. After all, this represents an increase of two percentage points compared to 2016; However, in an international comparison, Germany still lags far behind with these figures. Nevertheless, a trend can be seen. Germans are slowly getting used to the idea of ​​ordering their groceries online.

Providers like Marley Spoon & Co., who deliver recipes and ingredients for home cooking to their customers, are becoming increasingly popular. E-Grocery – as the analogous technical term is called in English – is therefore also an issue in this country, but the type of use still differs. But this also means that logistics must adapt to this trend at an early stage with appropriate solutions and strategies.

Intralogistics experts are already offering efficient concepts for individual solutions to establish online food retail as a sustainable and lucrative business model in Germany.

DAIFUKU – As a pioneer and global leader in material handling systems, DAIFUKU develops, produces and delivers a comprehensive range of automation and logistics solutions such as logistics services that meet all requirements.

E-commerce requires a high return on investment

“Off-the-shelf solutions – i.e. fixed, inflexible systems – are no longer in demand today. We at DAIFUKU are able to offer our customers tailor-made solutions with a high level of investment security,” explains Markus Becker, Business Development Manager at DAIFUKU. “We are particularly challenged here in e-commerce, because customers in this area demand a high return on their long-term investments. We can allay their concerns that the modern system they are investing in today will no longer be functional in ten years’ time.”