It seems as though the digital world is becoming ever more entwined with the real world, as technology has infiltrated nearly every aspect of life. Facing the growth of eCommerce, the food and beverage industries have worked hard to adapt, and that work seems to be paying off.

By 2025, U.S. consumers will spend $100 billion online for food and beverages, according to a February Nielsen Insights titled “Inside the FMCG industry’s $100 billion path to online maturation,” which details a new report from Nielsen and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI).

Going further, a 2017 Nielsen Digital Shopper Fundamentals survey found that 49 percent of Americans said that they purchased fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) online. Surpassing the tipping point (20 percent) at which online maturation significantly accelerates, online maturation for FMCG clearly is in sight, the Insights notes.

Although consumers are ready for and even embracing this shift to eCommerce, FMCG retailers don’t appear to be quite as ready for the change, according to the Insights. Nielsen and FMI surveyed U.S. FMCG retailers and manufacturers and found that about 30 percent of manufacturers think they’re ready for the shift while only 10 percent of retailers feel the same.

In order to determine the necessary steps that retailers and manufacturers should take to prepare for the maturation of FMCG eCommerce, the market research firm and association conducted interviews with grocery industry executives. These interviews provided six key areas where industry players can collaborate to prepare for the omnichannel shift: strategic organizational structure, master data accuracy, integrated forecasting, cohesive shopper insights, marketing and promotions, and digital shelf optimization.

As eCommerce becomes ever more prevalent within the FMCG marketplace, it will be exciting to see how manufacturers and retailers will evolve to our increasingly digital world.