Is Online Grocery Retail the Future?

by Katie Livermore

2020 brought many unexpected changes to our lives, one of which being the wider use of online retail platforms. While shops remained closed, more people turned to online platforms to have their weekly shop delivered to their door with minimal interaction. As the use of this technology becomes increasingly popular, what are the dangers of the seemingly convenient shopping experience and how could the use of such platforms benefit society?

 

Services such as Click and Collect or home delivery have experienced waiting lists of up to 3 weeks during lockdown. Google has published that searches for ‘food delivery’ hit a record high in April, doubling the number of searches in 2019. But why are they proving so popular? Online platforms have been relied upon by many shielding families due to the convenience, safety and accessibility. You can forget about staggering home with 10 bags of groceries (especially when they cost 5p each). Online shopping generally takes much less time than going in-store which has been popular for homeschooling parents. You can avoid crowds, check reviews of products and avoid the distractions of the supermarket. If you realise that you have forgotten an item, you can edit your basket and receive it the next day. The convenience of online alternatives have been agreed by millions of people worldwide.

However, the growing popularity of online retail could lead to the physical stores closing down, making workers redundant. An example of this has already been seen when self-service check-outs were first introduced, leaving thousands of cashiers without jobs. This caused immense controversy which could be repeated if online sites eliminate high street stores. Some may argue that this would open up a new plethora of jobs in warehouses, packing products and delivery drivers yet it is apparent that these jobs require a different skill set to working behind a till. There is no way of knowing what the future holds for cashiers but the Office for National Statistics say that around two-thirds of cashier jobs are at high risk of being replaced by technology. 

In the same way, the rapid growth of online grocery platforms could have detrimental effects on the planet. Just over 45% of consumers say that they have purchased non-essential items in their online food shop due to the convenience of clicking a button. The result of these unnecessary orders have increased carbon emissions significantly. ‘When they shop in a store, they aggregate these smaller purchases in a single bulk purchase," argued the team of Environmental Science students at Radboud University in the Netherlands. Their study has shown that the multitude of smaller orders have produced more packaging waste and larger greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to this, the return rate of online orders is over 3 times higher than going to high street stores. As reported by the BBC, Harriet Gordon, a recruitment consultant in London, has admitted to returning just under 80% of her online purchases. She frequently travels long distances to shops purely to return the item. When you add the carbon emissions from the delivery driver to her return trip, the figures are astounding. 

In conclusion, it is undoubtedly clear that there are advantages and disadvantages to the use of online retail. This makes it difficult to make a definitive judgement as to whether the use of online shopping is better than visiting your local store. However, there are some extreme positives which may justify the global boom of online shopping. It remains important for us to think before we click and consider the wider effect of our actions.