Competing in the On-Demand Grocery Era

On-demand grocery is the fastest-growing segment of online retail, and the gap between grocers who get it right and those who don't is widening fast. OrderGrid Co-founder Aidan Mittra joins Jordan Berke, Founder of Tomorrow Retail and former Head of Omnichannel at Walmart China, for a Grocery Dive webinar on what it actually takes to compete in the on-demand era and why speed and accuracy alone aren't enough without the right operational foundation underneath.

Key Takeaways

• The on-demand shift is accelerating: Nearly 50% of consumers will pay a premium for two-hour delivery, and the fill-in trip is now the fastest-growing segment of online grocery.
• Third-party marketplace tradeoffs: Platforms like Instacart and Deliveroo offer incremental customers but erode customer data, brand trust, and long-term loyalty over time.
• In-store picking works if the orchestration is right: A 6% out-of-stock rate across just 50 daily on-demand orders can cost over $10,000 annually in gross profit leakage.
• Great omnichannel fulfillment lifts the whole store: Grocers who fulfill well from store typically see a 300 to 500 basis point comp sales lift that rarely shows up in the e-commerce P&L.
• AI enhances humans, not replaces them: The most effective on-demand operations use AI for demand forecasting, assortment curation, order routing, and picker guidance.

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Originally recorded for Grocery Dive.