TO: Ahold’s CEO and Peapod’s CEO

FROM:
DATE: 19 June 2020
RE: Digital commerce is becoming common and popular son companies
should take this into advantage in order to increase their sales.
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1. Are online grocery sales a real opportunity or only a real flash in the pan?

Online sales are becoming more popular as time goes by, which shows that it is a real

opportunity that business can take advantage of. E-commerce has been growing in the

last years, and this can help businesses reach a wider range of customers and increase its

sales if they manage to implement it correctly into their business activities. E-commerce

has not been the most common way to buy groceries, but companies such as Amazon

have shown that it is possible and businesses should be able to transform their customers

and give them all the needed information and tools in order to take advantage of online

shopping.

2. Ahold’s century long success has been based on operating physical stores, now

over 3,500. Can it be successful navigating the waters of digital commerce?

It can be successful with digital commerce. Implementing this type of commerce should

not affect their physical stores if it is done properly. This is an opportunity to have a

further expansion of its business activities and attract a larger group of customers to buy

their products. As mentioned before, e-commerce is becoming much more popular as

time passes, so if the company can utilize all of its knowledge of the market and its

prestige, it is very likely that the success that the physical stores have had, will transfer to

digital commerce.
3. Google and Amazon are changing the competitive landscape dramatically. How

should Peapod and Ahold respond?

Both Google and Amazon are two of the biggest companies in the world, so they have a

lot of influence in any market they try to enter. In this case, competitors such as Peapod

and Ahold need to adapt to the possible changes that the market will have due to

Google’s and Amazon’s influence. Their response should be based on what has been

mentioned before, which is to understand how e-commerce works in order to expand

their sales instead of losing customers to larger companies.