Supermarkets need to innovate to get shoppers through their doors again

Our grocery shopping habits are changing. The modern supermarket needs to bring more to the table than cheap deals.

- Karen Tee

As a millennial with a borderline addiction to convenience, I will admit my phone does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to my weekly grocery shopping.

I restock most of my pantry staples online at digital grocer RedMart, bulk-buy household essentials like toilet paper and detergent off platforms like Lazada or Shopee during online sale events like 5/5 or 6/6, and order occasional gourmet indulgences like Korean strawberries or Japanese sashimi from specialty online grocers.

While I still do visit my local supermarket, it's typically only for quick pit stops when I need to pick up daily necessities like eggs or fresh bread at short notice.

That's why, when news broke in March that all Cold Storage and Giant supermarket outlets in Singapore would be sold to Malaysian retail group Macrovalue, it didn't surprise me.

After all, many of us have already diversified our shopping habits, toggling between platforms and physical stores-something which traditional supermarkets have been scrambling to catch up with.

In particular, DFI Retail Group, which owned and ran the Cold Storage and Giant chains, had been closing underperforming stores over the past few years. DFI's supermarket operations turned profitable only in 2024, after several years of losses.

We've been seeing an increasingly competitive supermarket scene, with players like FairPrice and Sheng Siong ramping up digital offerings while budget-conscious shoppers chase value wherever it is easiest to find.

THE CHANGING FACE OF GROCERY SHOPPING I'm not the only one who has swapped baskets for digital carts.

A 2024 Statista report on the frequency of online grocery shopping in Singapore found that 19 per cent of respondents shop online for groceries at least once a month.

Covid-19 was the accelerator pedal for digital grocery habits and got us accustomed to checking out right from our couch.