Meat+Poultry - October 2020 - 90

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The Power of Meat 2020 report, researched by San Antonio-based 210
Analytics, found that relatively few shoppers exclusively or primarily
purchase groceries online with less than 1% of shoppers identifying online
shopping as their primary channel for buying groceries.
"While online may not yet be a primary way to obtain groceries for most
shoppers, the trial and engagement levels are very telling for a growing role
as a supplementary source of groceries, at the very least," the report stated.
Online grocery shopping occasions were growing before the pandemic.
But the trend accelerated as shelter-in-place orders went into effect,
foodservice operations shut down and panic-buying depleted supplies of
staple foods and household products.
Crowd Cow aligned with this trend by providing more than just
premium craft meats and poultry - customers can buy staples too. The
convenience and safety of buying meat online helped drive sales.
"What we saw in March, April and May, our customers were handholding their parents on how to sign up for Crowd Cow, because they
didn't want their parents going to the store and getting infected,"
Heitzeberg said. "This is a much cleaner, safer way to purchase meat.
"Not only that, but you had meat shortages coming out of the large
meat plants," he added. "What's wrong with our meat/food system if
that's even possible to happen? And why is Crowd Cow still shipping
meat? Because we're working with small, independent farms and many
processors. That's the stuff that goes to farm-to-table restaurants."
Heitzeberg said one executive at a major food company told him
COVID-19 "basically accelerated all the online stuff we needed to be doing
by five years. All of our 2022-2023 should already be done now."
"I think it is a permanent shift," Heitzeberg said. "People aren't going
back to work, people aren't going back to school, so that's a lot of meals
being cooked at home."

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In addition to convenience, the experience of grocery shopping online
continues to improve because internet merchants can offer a more
personalized experience and customer service. That's one reason why
Heitzeberg and Lowry believed Crowd Cow would be a success.
"Frankly, one of the reasons we thought - even though we were two
guys just starting and this is a big, established industry - that we had a
chance at it was because we're internet people," Heitzeberg said. In the
grocery store, no matter how hard you try, even though you brought in
people that understand branding and are very good at it, you just don't
have people's attention.
"You're pushing a shopping cart, a 5-year-old is tugging at your arm,
you have a huge shopping list, and everyone's just fighting to catch
a little bit of your eye with a little orange sticker that says 'Special,'

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Meat+Poultry - October 2020

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