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By Len Lewis

You would be hard pressed today to find a retailer in any sector that is not involved in some form of digital retailing in order to enhance the shopping experience and the customer life cycle. But as Michael Klein, Director of Industry Strategy and Marketing for Retail, Travel and CPG at Adobe, emphasized, “the devil is in the details.”

The firm’s U.S. Online Grocery Market Update last March found that by 2020, 56 percent of consumers are likely to purchase groceries digitally, accounting for $129 billion in sales. Moreover, 56 percent of store purchases are influenced by digital. Studies by eMarketer and Forrester Research also reported that digital was, which is also responsible for a 13 percent increase in store spending. However, the industry still has to evolve in order to address the many nuances of the digital business so it can deliver a seamless and frictionless customer experience. “I believe that all retailers have recognized the true potential of digital retail and I would expect the numbers to change but it depends on how it’s approached,” Klein said, noting that Amazon accounted for 53 percent of e-commerce growth in 2016.

Klein is as much a proponent of physical retailing as he is its digital counterpart, noting that 90 percent of retailing in the U.S. is still done through brick and mortar. “This may have shifted in the past year,” Klein said, “but it’s still no less than 85 percent and in grocery, digital is still less than five percent of the business.” “A category like appliances is still a traditional transaction since a dishwasher or refrigerator is typically not being delivered by UPS. And in the spirit of convenience, most customers can’t always wait for someone to deliver the milk,” he said. However, brick and mortar stores are still problematic for some consumers on several counts. According to a recent survey by eMarketer, 71 percent are frustrated by their inability to compare prices at physical locations and two-thirds still complain about long lines at the checkout.

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