Amazon has 'created a tipping point' in online groceries (AMZN)

pulse

April 23, 2018 5:17 PM

Amazon is digitizing groceries. But the other groceries know that, and are set to compete with the e-commerce behemoth.

Big players like

Amazon's growing presence in online groceries is forcing the competition to restrategize, according to UBS analyst Eric Sheridan in a note to clients.

Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in the summer of 2017, a threatening move to other grocers, which now have to compete with Amazon's technology-minded approach to the industry.

"AMZN/Whole Foods created a tipping point of adoption in the US, making online groceries more mainstream & causing retailers to rethink positioning within the ecosystem," Sheridan wrote.

The online grocery market is young and growing, according to UBS. "Grocery remains one of the most underpenetrated online categories in retail," Sheridan said. The space "may be approaching an inflection point," he added.

And players in the grocery market want to make sure Amazon doesn't carve out too big a share of that space.

Here are some big grocery players that are focused on improving their online grocery capabilities: