In a physical bricks-and-mortar grocery store, shoppers wander up and down aisles packed with products. Merchandising is on point: eye-catching logos and colorful packaging turn heads, best-sellers are placed on easy-to-reach shelves, and end caps and gondolas exhibit the latest brand offerings. Shoppers can browse at a leisurely pace. They’re prone to impulse buys and tend to be brand-focused.

Online, shopper behavior is very different. Physical stores and shelves don’t exist and shopper journeys are more complex. Consumers can discover, engage with and purchase products across hundreds of different touchpoints and navigate across several different retailer websites with just a few clicks. Product discoverability is controlled by algorithms and the merchandising that guides shoppers around physical stores has far less power. 

This range of touchpoints that shoppers use on their online shopping journeys is known as the ‘Digital Shelf’ and it’s what we’re going to explore in this lesson. We’ll be focussing on two of the biggest eCommerce channels out there: ‘bricks and clicks’ and ‘pure play’ grocery retailers. We’ll be looking at exactly what the Digital Shelf is, how grocery shopper behavior differs in the online environment and the benefits and challenges both CPGs and retailers must navigate in order to ‘win’ in this online world. Let’s get started.