02/23/19 WILL SHOPPERS TAKE TO CYBER GROCERIES?

WILL SHOPPERS TAKE TO CYBER GROCERIES?

IT'S A NO-BRAINER BUYING computers, books, and airline tickets on the Internet. But groceries? You can't exactly sniff cantaloupes over your modem. Even so, a recent Andersen Consulting study predicts online shopping for groceries and household goods will soar, as more consumers choose to buy over the Web and avoid store trips that average 47 minutes, not including driving and parking.
Online purchases of food and household goods and services are expected to jump up to $85 billion by 2007, up from $100 million last year, as the number of households shopping online mushrooms to as many as 20 million--some 15% of U.S. households--up from 200,000 today. The report's results were culled from two years of tracking the buying habits of 1,800 U.S. consumers and 800 online shoppers. Consumer Direct Cooperative, an Andersen-led consumer packaged-goods group that includes Coca-Cola Co., Nabisco Holdings Corp., and 29 other companies, conducted the report to get a bead on whether shopping patterns are changing because of the Internet.
Still, it may take some time for online grocery shopping to take off, the study concluded, since most efforts are in the pilot phase. What's more, shoppers shy away from the extra delivery fees that are currently charged for Net groceries. Maybe they want to sniff the cantaloupes after all.
By Robert D. Hof
EDITED BY HEATHER GREEN