Whenever holidays or birthdays roll around, time sometimes gets the best of me. To save myself the hassle, I find myself turning to the Internet for a quick shopping trip.

Before, I only used to shop online for things I couldn’t find in stores, but now it is becoming more the norm for my regular shopping — and I’m not the only one.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and PwC US 2011 Food, Beverage, and Consumer Products financial performance report “Thriving in a Connected World” indicates that digital transformation is empowering consumers while allowing consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies to manage their enterprises effectively and efficiently to drive growth.

The report found that the value of shipments in the CPG industry rose 6 percent to almost $124 billion in 2010 versus the prior year. It also states that CPG companies are finding more opportunities through digital technologies.

“CPG companies of all sizes harnessed digital technologies in the past few years to become more productive and efficient,” said Pamela G. Bailey, GMA president and chief executive officer, in a statement. “This study shows how food, beverage and consumer products manufacturers are leveraging innovation to optimize service to consumers and trading partners.”

Digital shopping also has attracted the attention of market research companies. The Nielsen Co., Schaumburg, Ill., recently announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with MyWebGrocer, a provider of digital grocery tools, to measure U.S. online supermarket sales.

Nielsen now is licensed to MyWebGrocer’s e-commerce sales information aggregated from 60 U.S. supermarket retailers and the data is planned to be available for CPG manufacturers in the third quarter of 2011. Nielsen plans to measure approximately 30 percent of all online supermarket sales in the United States, it says.