Dive Brief:
- Asian-American grocer H Mart now offers same-day delivery service to stores nationwide, according to a press release sent to Grocery Dive. The Instacart-provided service is now available at 65 locations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, California, Texas and Massachusetts.
- H Mart will offer a variety of items through Instacart like kimchi, fresh seafood, specialty ingredients and other everyday essentials.
- Delivery is $3.99 on orders of $35 or more, or customers can get unlimited delivery for $9.99 per month or $99 per year.
Dive Insight:
Selling international foods online is a great way to differentiate from other purveyors in the increasingly competitive e-commerce marketplace. H Mart clearly understands the opportunity that online grocery presents when it comes to reaching its target demographic. It also recently partnered with Walmart’s Jet.com to offer a variety of Asian food items like Pocky snacks, kimchi and instant noodles.
H Mart has an opportunity to provide added convenience for its existing customers, and to reach new ones as well who might be curious to try its instant soups, snacks and unique beverages. H Mart also offers a very popular food court experience, featuring everything from sushi stations to fresh ramen, that could make its way into online shoppers' homes.
According to Technomic’s 2018 Ethnic Food & Beverage Consumer Trend Report, about one-third of consumers choose ethnic food at least once a week and they are willing to pay more for it. Several Asian grocers have been focusing on U.S. expansion, including Be-Se-To and PK Market, increasing saturation in the Asian food marketplace.
Multicultural consumers hold substantial buying power, with the U.S. Census Bureau predicting that the country’s multicultural population will increase by 98 million people by 2060. The Brookings Institute estimates that nearly half of millennials in ten U.S. states, including California, Florida and New Jersey, are millennials. Approximately half of minority consumers prefer to shop with brands that reflect their cultural heritage, but 75% still list convenience as the most important aspect of shopping.
The expanded H Mart partnership is also advantageous for Instacart considering that nearly three-fifths of millennials that live in urban centers are minorities, according to Brookings. Urban shoppers are 90% more likely than the average shopper to find online grocery appealing, according to a new Acosta report. Unsurprisingly, the main driver of urban dweller’s willingness to order groceries online is convenience, as densely populated areas with traffic congestion or crowded public transport systems make getting groceries a burden for many.
