The Second CPG Demand Surge is Underway

But it’s almost entirely online right now.

After over a year of getting habituated to online grocery pickup and delivery, America’s educated elite is all in. In the last four weeks, folks, there has been a quiet 2021 surge in online grocery as the Delta variant itself has surged. 

Educated folks appear to be staying home more OR simply buying more online and making in-store visits only on a ‘need immediately’ basis for a few items. I suspect it’s a bit of both. 

But there also are millions of us who simply have stuck with the level of online grocery shopping we exhibited during the winter of 2020. We habituated to the saved hours of wandering, forgetting, circling back and assorted B.S. that the brick grocery model had seduced us into accepting for decades.  

The more significant takeaway here is that you should be clear that there is real, long-term sales volume online for everyday CPG items, even if it’s just on Amazon or Thrive Market.com.

The COVID-19 pandemic has nudged millions into making this their PRIMARY CPG channel. It may ultimately allow more startups to scale to $5M before dealing with the lower margins and headaches of brick distribution.