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Grocery shopping behavior has been rapidly and constantly changing over the past decade. Online
grocery shopping has grown in size and importance significantly, creating a competitive landscape
among retailers. The COVID-19 pandemic created significant challenges for grocery retailers but
also triggered significant growth and acceleration in online grocery shopping, forming a massive
online market opportunity. This has resulted in increased online orders that heavily prompted
retailers to expand on digital and omnichannel capabilities to cater to consumer behavior changes
and online shopping values. To understand how the pandemic influenced the sector, semi-
structured interviews with retail experts and consumers were conducted to gain insights into how
consumers shape their shopping values and how retailers strategically adapt and meet such values.
The data shows that consumers indeed value online grocery shopping more than they did before
the pandemic, creating higher levels of convenience and a form of dependency on its use. Retailers
mostly noted that while offline channels are still considered the main sales channel, their focus on
building digital capabilities with the support of advanced technology and omnichannel strategies
has increased tremendously, resulting in fierce competition to serve the online world. They note
that omnichannel expansion is essential to create the ability and sustainability in catering to
increased online orders and digital interaction with consumers. The hypothesis in this paper aims
to test whether the pandemic helped create an irreversible omnichannel mindset among consumers
and retailers. Interest from researchers on this topic has increased considerably over the past two
years, therefore, this study lays a foundation for future research that proves pivotal to researchers
and practitioners alike.
