Free Paper Sample: E-Commerce in Grocery Stores

Janina

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According to the answer, e-commerce is rapidly growing in grocery stores. I agree with the statement looking at the data provided both by this particular article and other external sources. In the last couple of months, almost half of all consumers have purchased their goods online, with the number expecting to grow as time goes by (Weinwig, 2018). I agree with the writer that it is important for grocery stores to have an easy-to-navigate website that provides the customers with a unique shopping experience. In doing so, grocery stores are likely to promote the growth of e-commerce in the United States.

The changes being made in the grocery stores both online and offline are influenced by the current consumer-shopping experience where more consumers continue to order for goods online. As such, stores have had to change their offline setup like in the case of Smart & Final Inc. The writer has gone further to mention some of the changes grocery stores have had to make to ensure that they keep up with the current e-commerce trends while ensuring that they offer their clients quality services.

Nevertheless, supermarkets continue to face fulfillment/supply chain challenges as they strive to meet their e-commerce clients. The writer indicates that supermarkets have been forced to change the way they operate (Haddon, 2018). She goes ahead to provide an example of grocery stores that have changed their staff and focused on inventory and shipping staff to help in the delivery of goods to the clients. One of the challenges the writer quotes includes finding continuous staff that will fill the late-night orders.

The Equifax data breach, as indicated in the article, was significant because personal data was downloaded during the breach. The breach led to the access of sensitive information including the clients' social security numbers, addresses, credit card numbers, and payment records. Another large breach included the breach on Adidas' website which affected shoppers that purchased items from Adidas.com from the USA (Green & Hanbury, 2018).

Rachel

According to the answer, e-commerce currently represents close to 5 percent of all grocery, food and beverage sales made in the United States. I agree with her when she indicates that e-commerce is growing faster online as compared to the traditional supermarkets. Data obtained from the article shows that the total grocery sales made in the United States will total to $36.5 billion by 2022, and $26.7 in 2018 (Haddon, 2018). The number of clients shopping for groceries online has grown tremendously which is likely to channel a lot of growth in the U.S.

Competitors are redesigning their stores to accommodate the current market shift and increased e-commerce competition. One way stores are doing this by improving their online structures to accommodate online ordering without disrupting brick and mortar shoppers. Therefore, grocers are currently employing new strategies to streamline consumer shopping experience.

The study also indicates that many grocers face a supply chain challenge regarding managing and tracking inventory. This is because most of them strive to fulfill online orders from their brick and mortar stores as compared to using warehouses. The problem with using the following system is that the stores must provide enough food and beverage supplies for both online and offline shoppers (Haddon, 2018). I agree with the writer that the system leads to frequent out-of-stock instances that force offline shoppers to look for supplies elsewhere.

The hack on Equifax back in 2017 was very significant as it saw the loss of very sensitive information. The information obtained contained the history of disputes with creditors. As indicated by the writer, credit records are vital for developing or already developed economies. After the hack, it was established that hackers could run credit for close to 143 million customers. Other hacks indicated in the article include the Target's breach and the Facebook hack (McCoy, 2017 & Isaac and Frenkel, 2018).

#Victoria

The answer focuses on the current fast pace world where clients expect things delivered to them when they want them. As such, many grocery stores are feeling the pressure and have been forced to turn to e-commerce. Amazon has been used as a good example whereby the company has added curbside grocery pickup for its online clients (Stern, 2018).

Different stores are coming up with new ways of improving the offline and online consumers shopping experience. One such company is Kroger which offers a service known as Kroger Ship to its online clients. The service offers free doorstep delivery on products above $35. The website, Kroger.com, provides the clients access to 4,500 products and close to 50,000 groceries and household goods (Thomas, 2018).

The article indicates that several fulfillment challenges face supermarkets in regards to the concerns and the needs of the e-commerce clients. One such concern is product security and delivery efficiency. Many clients fear that their goods might be stolen or they may have to wait for too long to have their goods delivered. I agree with the writer since in the past such complaints have been raised.

Apart from having the clients' personal information stolen, the Equifax breach was very significant regarding trust, confidentiality and consequently, client loyalty. Other breaches mentioned in the article include the eBay data breach back in 2014 as well as the Yahoo data breach back in 2016.

References

Green, D., & Hanbury, M. (2018, August 22). If you shopped at these 16 stores in the last year, your data might have been stolen. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/data-breaches-2018-4

Haddon, H. (October, 2 2018). Online Orders Force Supermarkets to Rethink Their Stores. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/online-orders-force-supermarkets-to-rethink-their-stores-1538532420?ns=prod/accounts-wsj

Isaac, M., & Frenkel, S. (2018, September 28). Facebook Network Breach Affects Up to 50 Million Users. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/technology/facebook-hack-data-breach.html (Links to an external site.)

McCoy, K. (2017, May 23). Target to pay $18.5M for 2013 data breach that affected 41 million consumers. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/05/23/target-pay-185m-2013-data-breach-affected-consumers/102063932/

Stern, M. (2018, August 23). Grocers Are Sold On E-Commerce. Consumers? Not So Much. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2018/08/23/grocers-sold-on-e-commerce-consumers-not-so-much/#3999a493a037

Thomas, L. (2018, August 01). Kroger launches delivery service in four cities to take on Amazon, Walmart. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/01/kroger-launches-kroger-ship-delivery-service-in-four-cities.html

Weinswig, D. (2018, March 1). Online Grocery Set To Boom In 2018 (As Amazon Acknowledges Online Grocery A Tough Market To Crack). Retrieved October 9, 2018, from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahweinswig/2018/03/01/online-grocery-set-to-boom-in-2018-as-amazon-acknowledges-online-grocery-a-tough-market-to-crack/#2d38001d520b