As people become accustomed to getting the products and services they need via their smartphones and mobile devices, they are beginning to turn to eCommerce for even the most routine purchases, such as grocery shopping.

 

According to a new survey conducted by the group 72 Point Inc. on behalf of online organic grocer Door to Door Organics, the number of consumers who shop online for groceries increased 29 percent in 2015. And 19 percent of those surveyed said they did all of their weekly food shopping online.

 

Virtual Grocery Cart

 

Grocery shopping is one of the last holdouts for online commerce. That’s probably because many consumers prefer to physically see the food products they are buying to feed their families — especially meats, produce, and dairy products. Don’t you always open the egg container to see if any are broken?

 

But given the convenience of online shopping, these attitudes are slowly changing. According to the survey, 13 percent of people said that they used a single grocery provider for all of their weekly purchases, but 34 percent said they used more than one. And 53 percent said they visit three or four online and offline stores each week for their food shopping.

 

Produce Holdouts

 

Most are still using online services to shop for everything except produce and other fresh grocery items. And of those people who have bought produce online, more than half — 57 percent — told the pollsters that they were disappointed with the quality and freshness of the fruit and vegetables they received.

 

Most consumers — 58 percent 00 said the would be more likely to buy produce online if websites included information about where the products were picked and packaged. And 51 percent said they would like to be more willing to buy produce online if they knew that it came from local farms.

 

The survey reveals that attitudes towards eCommerce are continuing to evolve.