Albertsons Posts Massive 282% Digital Sales Growth

Need to Know

• The US grocery store chain reported a whopping 258% digital sales growth for its 2020 fiscal year and growth of 282% for the most recent quarter.
• Sales and other revenue amounted to $69.7 billion for fiscal 2020, while net income hit $850 million.
• Albertsons added 11 million more identified households to its customer base in 2020, and counted three times as many omnichannel shoppers compared to 2019.
• Albertsons also named Danielle Crop as its first-ever chief data officer.

Analysis

Albertsons saw significant digital sales growth last year, reporting a remarkable 258% spike in online sales over its fiscal 2020 year, compared to 2019.

Sales and other revenue for 2020 hit $69.7 billion for the year, with net income hitting $805 million. Meanwhile, digital sales continued to spike in the first quarter of 2021, rising by 282% year-over-year, according to the company.

Albertsons’ strong digital growth is due in part to membership in the company’s Just For U loyalty program, which increased more than 20% year over in each quarter of 2020. The program’s 25.4 million members spend 2.6 times more than non-members, Albertsons Companies President and CEO Vivek Sankaran said in an earnings call.

Sankaran noted that the program also gives Albertsons important customer insight, including which categories they’re purchasing, how often they repurchase items, and when they migrate to other channels. “We’re able to quickly reward these new category buyers with personalized deals to retain that category spending our storage,” he said.

The company also added around 11 million identified households to its customer base in 2020, with three times more customers using omnichannel shopping — buying online via the Albertsons website or its mobile app — than in 2019.

“We are very proud of what our team accomplished in fiscal 2020, serving our customers and communities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sankaran said in a statement. “As a result of our strong execution, we delivered record full-year results, drove meaningful market share gains and are well-positioned for continued success and strong performance in fiscal 2021.

Earlier this week, Albertsons also named Danielle Crop as its first-ever chief data officer. Crop formerly served as the chief data officer at American Express.

Albertsons has long been an industry leader in digitally-focused advancements, launching a micro-fulfillment center program in 2019 — ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic — that gave it a leg up in 2020, as bricks-and-mortar stores pivoted towards fulfilling a spike in online orders. Earlier this month, the grocery chain partnered with Google to digitize grocery shopping, allowing customers to find products using Google Search and Maps, check out with Google Pay, and more easily find information about curbside pickup and delivery.