The pandemic and shutdown have caused the online grocery business to explode with growth. Earlier this year before Coronavirus, the online grocery business was well below 5% of total grocery sales. Now it appears to be well above 10% and is steadily heading to 20%. Unlike other sectors of retail, the profitability in online grocery is substantially different from in-store sales. The grocery business has very low profit margins and if the store has to supply the labor to take the products off the shelves and bring them to the parking lot for waiting customers or deliver to consumers’ homes, then the business loses money.
