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It’s only been a couple of months since Amazon announced plans to buy Whole Foods. But the internet mega retailer is already making changes, starting with a series of price cuts in Whole Foods stores in an effort to make the brand more accessible to consumers. However, the changes might not be all positive. As this report from Business Insider notes, Amazon’s struggling image might at some point have a negative impact on the Whole Foods brand as well. In this week’s survey, we asked 1,000 respondents about their opinions of Whole Foods and Amazon. And we compared responses to those from right after the acquisition to see if any opinions have changed.
Grocery Shopping Habits
In Ask Your Target Market’s latest online survey, 60% of consumers said that they currently purchase groceries at least twice per week. And 38% do so a few times per month. Shopping in stores is still the most popular way for people to get their groceries; 98% said they regularly shop in stores for groceries. 19% shop online. And only a negligible amount of people regularly shop using mobile apps, delivery services or other methods.
Looking forward, 51% of respondents said that they’re at least somewhat likely to shop online for groceries in the next two years. Just after the Amazon Whole Foods Merger was announced, 50% had plans to grocery shop online in the next couple of years. So opinions really haven’t changed much in that area in the last few months.
Whole Foods Shoppers
On the other hand, just 9% said they shop at Whole Foods regularly. And 50% have shopped there in the past. Again, there wasn’t a significant change in those shopping habits as compared to a few months ago after the acquisition was announced. But just this past week, Whole Foods began implementing a series of price drops to make the brand more accessible to consumers. And 69% of consumers said that they would be likely to shop at Whole Foods more often if the chain lowers its prices, so it seems like this move could certainly help Amazon reach more potential customers through its new acquisition.
In fact, 43% of respondents said that price is the most important factor they consider when making grocery purchases, making it the most important of those listed. Quality was a fairly close second. But consumers consider both to be more important than other factors like convenience, nutritional value, brand name, environmental impact and overall value.
Brand Perceptions
So what about the perceptions of the brands involved? 60% of consumers said that they have a generally positive opinion of the Whole Foods brand. And 82% said they have a generally positive opinion of the Amazon brand. So if anything, the acquisition could help the image of Whole Foods. But neither brand was disliked enough to have any kind of negative impact on the other right away.
Key Takeaways
Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods seems to be going well so far. Both brands appear to be well liked by the majority of consumers. So those brands coming together could potentially only be helpful for both, at least in the short term. Additionally, price seems to be the driving factor for a lot of grocery consumers. So lowering prices in Whole Foods stores could definitely be a good strategy to get more people through the door. From there, Amazon can work on integrating other factors or new methods of getting people their groceries. But for now, lowering prices in stores seems to be the best possible strategy for attracting new customers.
Photo Credit: Whole Foods by Herry Lawford under CC by 2.0
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