Success Does Leave Clues and Amazon’s Whole Pay Check is a Clue to Avoid

What’s wrong at Amazon?  Closing Amazon Go stores, Amazon Fresh on what appears to be a hold and Whole Foods is still called ‘Whole Pay Check”.  Amazon knew what consumers wanted when it came do grocer.  They had data points on top of data points and have focused on price as a differentiator since day one.  The simple fact is it clearly is DAY ONE on the grocery side of Amazons business.

Simple it is at the intersection of Intelligent Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ) that interpreting that ‘high-level’ data seems to have taken some missteps according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® who stated, “legacy channel managers tend to see a channel with rose colored glasses half-full. They believe that the ‘grass is greener on the other side of the fence’ all the while not evolving with consumers thinking no matter how much data they have that they still know best.”

Johnson continued, that sounds simplistic while the customer is dynamic not static all food retailers must strive to evolve with consumers.  The fact is the grass may appear greener on the other side of the fence but as Johnson reminds us it is the pasture that pays the bills over time.  Don’t let the quantity of data become more valuable that quality of the data you review.

Now consider this, a new survey suggests that a majority of Amazon’s Prime customers are looking to another retailer when it comes to grocery pick up or delivery: Walmart.

About 60% of Amazon Prime members surveyed in April by research and advisory firm Coresight Research said they had purchased groceries online from Walmart at least once in the past 12 months — this, according to reporting from Business Insider. 

Roughly 55% said that they had ordered groceries online from Amazon Fresh or through Amazon’s website, while less than 14% said that they had ordered from Amazon-owned Whole Foods at least once. 

About half of Prime members said they had shopped at Walmart for groceries in a similar survey conducted in 2022, while 57% said they had grocery-shopped at Amazon Fresh or on Amazon.com.

Last year’s edition of Coresight’s survey also found that many Prime shoppers were only ordering a select few items from Amazon or Whole Foods vs. filling their basket. By contrast, the survey indicated, shoppers who ordered online from Walmart, Kroger, and Costco tended to buy more. 

Shoppers who make at least $100,000 a year have bolstered Walmart’s share of the U.S. grocery market over the last year-and-a-half, Insider previously reported. Many, including higher earners, have been attracted to the big box chain as inflation remains high.

In April, Walmart was America’s most popular grocer in terms of wallet share, followed by Kroger and Aldi, with Walmart grocery sales being almost double that of Kroger. 

That margin has widened since 2017 when Walmart grocery sales were 1.75 times higher than Kroger, demonstrating the company’s continued market penetration over the past five years.

Amazon knows what to do and how to drive both top-line sales and bottom-line profits but have failed to act on the success clues that made them what they have become a huge success.  That is in everything except grocery.

Looking for success clues of your own? Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter