Pandemic expanded online grocery shopping and delivery, but experts say in-store customers will be back

Online orders and delivery from Canada's major grocershavegone from novel to normal since the pandemic began, accelerating a move to e-shopping that was already underway.

"We're seeing growth rates today that we expected to see three to four years from now," said Sarah Joyce, senior vice-president of e-commerce at Sobeys.

In its most recent quarterly report,the Canada-widegrocery giant said e-commerce sales rose by241 per cent compared to 2019.

"We are still seeing strong growth today," Joyce said. "As the lockdown announcements continue, more and more people turn to online grocery."

The unprecedented demandfor online orders at Canada's three largest grocery chains, which control more than 60 per cent of the country's supermarket industry,has forced Loblaws, Sobeys and Metroto accelerate expansion plans that were already in the works.

WATCH |Canada's 3major grocery retailers have invested in online shopping:

Boom in online grocery shopping may not continue post pandemic, experts say

4 years ago

Duration 2:00

Canadas three major grocery retailers made big investments in their online offerings when demand boomed during the pandemic, but some analysts dont expect demand to continue at that level once the pandemic ends.

For instance, Sobeys, delivering under the name Voil by Sobeys, in June opened a $100-million warehouse in Vaughan, about 36 kilometres northwest of Toronto.Inside,hundreds of cube-shaped robots compileonline orders for more than 16,000 products. The robots move along a three-storey storage system known as "the hive," delivering items to humans below who package them.

Retail robots

The robots, which come from theUnited Kingdom-based company Ocado, can round upa 50-item order in five minutes,Joyce said.

The Vaughan "customer fulfilment centre"has recently extended its service area to include Barrie,about 112 km north of Toronto, and Guelph, about 95km westof the provincial capital,after already serving the Greater Toronto Areaand nearby Hamilton. Sobeys says orders have increased every week since the launch.

WATCH | Robots process online orders:

Retail robots

4 years ago

Duration 0:15

In this video provided by Sobeys, cube-shaped robots zip back and forth across a steel grid, each carrying groceries to where theyre needed in the floors below.

Metro, meanwhile,reported that online food sales had nearly tripled compared to the previous year. The company increased order capacity out of its hub stores and plans to open its first centre for online orders in Montreal this summer.

The company, which operatesin Ontario and Quebec,had planned to have 40 locationswith "click and collect" service by the end of the 2021 fiscal yearand instead will aim for more than 100.

"We are accelerating our investment as demand is increased, and we believe that post-COVIDconsumer behaviour will have shifted somewhat towards online purchases," said Marc Giroux, executive vice-president of e-commerce for Metro.

Loblaws says its e-commerce orders totalled about $1 billion sales in 2019, but by the midpoint of 2020, were already at $1.2 billion.

Ithas opened more pick-up locations and converted sections of five existing stores to strictly process online orders, with plans to convert additional storesin the works.

Loblawsin November announced a multi-year collaboration with autonomous vehicle company Gatikfollowing a 10-month pilot project in Toronto that employed aself-driving vehicle for grocery delivery.

Gatik will be operating fivesuch vehicles for Loblaws up to seven days a week, 12 hours a day, on fiveroutes in the Greater Toronto Area. All vehicles will have a safety driver as a co-pilot.

Not all Canadians are keen on doing their grocery shopping virtually, however.

CBC News spoke with a half dozen shoppers outside a grocery store in Toronto, and most were skeptical about ordering from home.

Canadians will return to stores, expert suggests

Marion Chan ofTrendSpotter Consulting in Toronto said that's a common sentiment among Canadians

"One of the hesitationsCanadians have always had with buying their groceries online is they don't get to pick their fresh groceries," she said. "They don'tget to touch and feel things. They don'tget to read the packaging. I think that tactile experience is really important to Canadians."

Chan said online shopping has risen from 12 to 15 per cent of Canadian shoppers before the pandemic to about 30 per cent now, but she expects those numbers to fallwhen pandemic restrictions ease, largely because of consumers'desire to see their produce.

She predicts that 20 to 25 per cent of grocery shopping will be done online in the long term.

"I suspect there may be some disappointment [among retailers] in how much ...continued onlinegrocery shopping there's going to be," she said.

Joyce agreed and said even Sobeys doesn't expect e-commerce to take over entirely.

"The majority of the business will still be in stores for a long, long time to come," she said.