Question 1

Evaluating the change in in-store sales after implementing a delivery program

The graph above highlights the change in in-store sales after certain stores implemented a delivery program. It is clear that stores offering delivery saw a drop in in-store sales after January 1st, 2016, the date when the program came into effect. This drop is contrasted by relatively consistent, and perhaps even a slight increase, in in-store sales for those grocery stores that did not offer a delivery option. The average sales pre and post implementation are represented by the dashed horizontal lines, which help evidence the drop in in-store sales for stores offering delivery.

Question 2

Understanding how whether a store has a pharmacy impacts in-store sales after implementing a delivery option

The graph above shows four different types of stores: (1) stores not offering delivery and without a pharmacy, (2) stores not offering delivery with a pharmacy, (3) stores offering delivery without a pharmacy, and finally (4) stores offering delivery with a pharmacy. The visualization supports the idea that stores offering delivery that also had a pharmacy saw much smaller drops in in-store sales compared to those offering delivery without a pharmacy. While both the blue and purple lines indicate a downward trend in sales, the change is more pronounced and drastic for stores without a pharmacy after they implemented a delivery program. One hypothesis as to why this trend appears might be that stores with pharmacies still require people to come to the store to pick up their medications. This policy may exist from a liability perspective so the store can ensure buyers of medications are age-appropriate or that the buyer is the one who also needs the prescription. Additionally, shoppers may come to the pharmacy for basic check-ups or vaccinations (e.g. CVS minute-clinic inside a Target). This service is something irreplicable over delivery and therefore people still must visit the store. Shoppers may feel that there’s no need to pay for a delivery service if they’re already going to the store for these exclusively in-person services from the pharmacy.

Question 3

Assessing the impact a zip-code’s median income has on the change in in-store sales after implementing a delivery program

The visualization is indicative of a trend where stores located in areas with higher median incomes experienced larger decreases in in-store sales after implementing the delivery program. Perhaps the most obvious explanation is that the areas of higher income exhibit the greatest willingness to incur the additional, not insignificant, delivery fee for groceries whereas lower-income neighborhoods would be more cost-conscious and therefore avoid paying the delivery fee if possible. In line with this idea, grocery delivery could be considered a premium or a luxury in life, especially if individuals would rather allocate their time to other activities instead of shopping for groceries. Accordingly, it would make sense that individuals in higher income neighborhoods would fine it easier to justify spending money on delivery instead of individuals in lower income neighborhoods which don’t place as much of a premium on the lost leisure time to shopping for groceries.

Finally, one more hypothesis as to why higher income neighborhoods saw larger drop-offs in in-store sales after delivery became an option would be that higher income neighborhoods have higher rates of technology adoption and technological literacy and therefore these consumers would be the most ready to take advantage of a delivery service. Assuming that ordering grocery delivery would require individuals to go online and shop and make the purchase, widespread adoption would require individuals to have the technological proficiency and familiarity with the website to utilize the service.

However, one important observation from this visualization that relates back to the original question of how does the introduction of a delivery option impact in-store sales would be that a few zip codes experienced drastic drops in in-store sales in comparison to the majority. There are a handful of points clustered around the zero-difference line, both above and below. But, there are 4 points with much greater decreases (and therefore changes) in in-store sales after delivery implementation compared to the rest of the points. These neighborhoods of higher income could potentially be considered outliers when compared to how the rest of the stores received the implementation.

Question 4

Assessing the impact a zip-code’s population has on the change in in-store sales after implementing a delivery program

For this final visualization, there is a less clear relationship between population and the change in in-store sales volume after implementing a delivery service. It seems like the neighborhoods with the smaller populations experienced larger decrease in in-store sales volume. One idea in support of this observation would be that zip codes with smaller populations might also be smaller geographically, which would allow for faster grocery delivery. With comparatively faster delivery, people may be more willing to foot the premium for delivery since they may perceive the service as more worth it.

Another idea in support would be that each zip code experienced an somewhat equal number of consumers converting over to the delivery service, and therefore the neighborhoods with smaller populations saw a larger proportion of their in-store sales lost to the delivery service. Simply put, these neighborhoods have fewer customers all together. Thus, if all neighborhoods saw approximately equal numbers of customers leave the store for delivery, then the smaller populations would experience a larger proportional decrease in customers.