Food and Beverage eCommerce in Action

From budding startups to key industry players, food and beverage businesses worldwide embrace eCommerce channels to remain competitive.

FREMONT, CA: The food and beverage sector deals with perishable goods that have to be sold fast to preserve the quality that buyers demand and regulations. Apart from complex logistic processes and rising demand among consumers, food and beverage eCommerce, driven by ERP integration, can help firms do so seamlessly.  The short time to market and the rapid flow of products set the food and beverage industry apart. This is because the goods the industry produce have a short shelf life. After all, customers do not want to pay for food and beverage supplies past their expiration date. Overall, eCommerce lets businesses in the food and beverages industry grab a bigger share of the market.

The food and beverage e-commerce market is forecasted to grow from $14.9 billion in 2019 to around $22.4 billion in 2020. Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are now working from home. Therefore, customers prefer to buy food, beverages, and other essentials online.  Along with this, an increase in smartphone users has also boosted food and beverage e-commerce sales worldwide. Taking the business online creates an incredible opportunity for growth that conventional brick-and-mortar competitors cannot achieve. The market is estimated to stabilize and reach $34.6 billion at a CAGR of 23.4 percent through 2023.

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Today’s consumers want streamlined means of browsing, selecting, and ordering their favorite food products. This is where technology also plays a significant role. It is forecasted that shoppers will do more online research before making a final purchase in the coming years. As such, forms can benefit by offering easy access to all nutrition labels and sourcing data, and ensuring that it is compatible with mobile platforms. Moreover, connecting to consumers through social media channels also improves accuracy, boosts buyer satisfaction, and increases sales. An ERP-integrated e-commerce platform automates critical operations, ultimately lowering the costs and making it easier for food and beverage firms to do business online even as the sales increase.

In conclusion, a customer-driven industry like food and beverage should be aware of the eCommerce trend and use it to benefit by realizing an even shorter time to market for their products. Thanks to technologies, it is clear that there is plenty of growth opportunities for eCommerce for the food and beverage industry.