The U.S. supermarket segment is continuing to record strong seafood sales, but its e-commerce initiatives are running into problems due to the surge in demand caused by lockdowns in most of the 50 states.
Many e-commerce delivery platforms are recording exploding sales. Walmart Inc. saw its year-over-year online grocery sales for March reach nearly USD 900 million (EUR 824.4 million), double its total from March 2019. Target, which also has a strong online retail presence, has also reported higher sales amidst the coronavirus crisis.
However, Amazon – arguably the country’s top food e-tailer – has struggled with the tidal wave of demand it has faced as tens of millions of Americans shift to shopping for groceries online. Ad Age reported Amazon has is trailing rivals in web traffic and has seen sales declines in many categories.
It's likely part of that decline can be attributed to bottlenecks it has experienced with its delivery service. Amazon said it will temporarily halt taking new Amazon Grocery customers due to a lack of open delivery times, according to Quartz. Starting on 13 April, new customers are put on a waitlist and will notified when slots re-open.
This isn’t the first glitch encountered by users of Amazon’s grocery delivery service. In early March, the e-tailer said spiking demand had overpowered its delivery capacity.
“As COVID-19 has spread, we’ve seen a significant increase in people shopping online for groceries,” an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg on 2 March. “This resulted in a systems impact affecting our ability to deliver Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market orders tonight. We’re contacting customers, issuing concessions, and are working around the clock to quickly to resolve the issue.”
Grocery e-commerce outlets in the United Kingdom have also run into difficulties caused by an influx of online traffic. Omnichannel retailer Waitrose launched a “virtual queue” that ran thousands of customers deep at numerous points in March, according to eMarketer. In response, it closed the service.
Similarly, customers of online-only supermarket Ocado faced wait-times of more than a week in the United Kingdom, and the website and app of crashed several times in March. The company was forced to suspend all new orders and limited existing orders to weekend delivery.
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