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Nielsen has entered into a strategic alliance with MyWebGrocer (MWG), a provider of digital grocery tools and the largest grocery media network, to gauge U.S. online supermarket sales. The agreement allows New York-based Nielsen to provide consumer packaged goods companies with the food industry’s first comprehensive view of consumers’ online supermarket purchases, thereby solidifying Nielsen’s digital shopping analytics offering. Nielsen has obtained a license to MWG’s e-commerce sales information aggregated from 60 U.S. supermarket retailers.

Slated to be available to CPG manufacturers in the third quarter of 2011, Nielsen Online Basket View will offer regular insights on online supermarket shopping sales, including online shopping basket purchases. Nielsen will provide insights for retail clients within in the online grocery universe supplied by MWG. Nielsen plans to measure about 30 percent of all online supermarket sales in the United States. At the present time, no aggregate reporting of actual online supermarket sales data is available in the industry.

“We’re making it possible for the first time for CPG companies to understand online shoppers with the same rigor we apply to offline shopping analytics,” explained John Burbank, president, strategic initiatives at Nielsen. “We can share our insights into what decisions and purchases shoppers are making online, where and when.”

Although online purchases represent just 2 percent of overall U.S. CPG sales, they’re expected to increases from $12 billion to $25 billion by 20141. According to Nielsen and MWG research:

* 25 percent of U.S. CPG purchases are researched online, including retailer weekly ads, searching for deals, and recommendations from social sites
* 97 percent of the time, the researched product is the product ultimately purchased, whether online or in-store
* Online grocery shoppers spend twice as much on average at a retailer, vs. what an in-store only shopper spends

“The rate of change in the digital shopping space is accelerating, and so is the rate of opportunity for creative marketers who embrace the digital revolution,” noted John Lewis, president, Consumer North America at Nielsen. “Understanding consumers’ online shopping behaviors and building strategies to reach these shoppers is absolutely essential for CPG marketing success.”

“Online and offline, consumer shopping behaviors are converging,” added Alec Newcomb, chief strategy officer at Colchester, Vt.-based MWG, which creates and manages digital solutions for more than 110 retailers nationally, including websites, digital media, online circulars, email marketing initiatives, mobile applications, social media strategies, and customer acquisition programs. “At MyWebGrocer, we connect shoppers to retailers and brands, and Nielsen’s expertise in what consumers watch and buy makes it a natural organization for us to work with so we can help CPG companies understand their impact in the digital shopping channel.”