Same-Day Grocery Is Growing. Is Refrigerated Infrastructure Ready?

The next phase of grocery e-commerce is not just about putting more products online. It is about getting fresh, chilled, and frozen products to customers faster.

Amazon is providing a clear example of where the market may be heading. After years of experimenting with its grocery strategy, the company has expanded same-day delivery of perishable products across U.S. markets. The results are beginning to show.

According to Grocery Dive, Amazon and Whole Foods increased their combined grocery market share by 0.6 percentage points during the 12 months ending June 30, reaching 4%. That was the largest increase among the major grocers included in Numerator’s data. Amazon has attributed much of its recent momentum to the expansion of fresh grocery products through its same-day delivery network.

The customer response is particularly noteworthy. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reported that 90% of the top 10 best-selling items in cities offering the company’s same-day service are perishable. Monthly active customers purchasing perishables have also increased 50% since the beginning of the year.

For the grocery industry, those numbers point to a larger shift.

Grocery E-Commerce Is Becoming a Refrigeration Puzzle

Consumers have grown accustomed to convenience in nearly every area of retail. Grocery is increasingly becoming part of that expectation.

The challenge is that a box of household products and an order containing milk, produce, meat and frozen food require very different infrastructure.

As retailers expand same-day grocery services, refrigeration becomes a critical part of the e-commerce network. Products must remain at appropriate temperatures while orders are received, picked, staged and prepared for delivery. That requires enough refrigerated and frozen capacity in the right locations throughout the operation.

Traditional distribution centers and grocery stores were not always designed around this type of fulfillment.

A facility built primarily to replenish stores may need additional refrigerated space when it begins supporting direct-to-consumer orders. A grocery store handling a growing volume of online orders may face similar pressure in its back-of-house areas. Retailers developing dedicated fulfillment facilities have another challenge: getting enough refrigerated capacity installed and operational without slowing the project.

The question is no longer simply whether grocery e-commerce will continue to grow. Retailers also need to consider whether their refrigeration infrastructure can grow with it.

Building for Speed Without Overbuilding

Amazon’s approach also highlights an important characteristic of same-day grocery: proximity matters.

Faster fulfillment requires inventory to be positioned close enough to consumers to meet increasingly short delivery windows. For grocers, that could mean expanding existing facilities, converting available space, developing dedicated e-commerce locations or creating additional refrigerated staging areas.

Each approach comes with uncertainty.

Order volumes can change. New markets need to be tested. Construction schedules can shift. Permanent refrigeration projects can take time to design and install. Existing operations also need to continue running while changes are made.

This makes flexibility particularly valuable.

Instead of waiting for every piece of permanent infrastructure to be completed, retailers can use temporary refrigerated and frozen capacity to support a facility during construction, expansion or commissioning. Additional capacity can also help an existing location accommodate e-commerce growth without immediately committing to a permanent buildout.

It creates an opportunity to get operations moving while the long-term strategy continues to develop.

Refrigeration as Part of the E-Commerce Strategy

For years, grocery e-commerce conversations have focused heavily on technology. Ordering platforms, inventory systems, automation and last-mile delivery have all received significant investment.

But fresh-food fulfillment depends on physical infrastructure just as much as digital infrastructure.

A customer may place an order in seconds. The retailer still needs somewhere to safely hold those products before they reach the customer’s door.

As same-day perishables become a larger part of online grocery, refrigerated capacity should be considered earlier in e-commerce planning. That includes understanding how much chilled and frozen space will be required, where it needs to be located and how quickly it can become operational.

For retailers building new e-commerce facilities or adapting current locations, Lowe Rental can provide commercial refrigeration equipment to help bridge that gap. New rental equipment can support chilled and frozen storage requirements while permanent systems are being installed, during facility expansions or when additional capacity is needed to launch an operation.

The goal is not simply to add more refrigeration. It is to give grocery operators the flexibility to bring refrigerated e-commerce capacity online without making refrigeration the factor that holds the project back.

Preparing for the Next Stage of Online Grocery

Amazon’s recent success does not mean every grocer needs to replicate its model. It does show that consumers are responding to faster access to fresh and perishable groceries.

That puts pressure on the rest of the industry to evaluate what same-day and faster fulfillment could mean for their own networks.

Technology will continue to shape grocery e-commerce, but the physical side of fulfillment cannot be overlooked. More fresh products moving through online channels means more products that need reliable temperature-controlled spaces.

For grocery retailers planning their next e-commerce facility, expanding an existing operation or testing a new fulfillment model, refrigeration infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important part of the equation.

The retailers that can add that capacity quickly and flexibly will be better positioned to respond as grocery e-commerce continues to evolve.