Things in the U.S. grocery world are becoming more and more competitive as powerhouse retailers anticipate disruption from , reports Business Insider.

A newly released UBS report details that and remain the top leaders in the industry, with their combined market share accounting for about 30% of the sector - a number consistent since 2017.

Walmart - combined with its Sam's Club chain - still dominates with 21.3% of last year. Kroger comes in second with a share of 9.9%.

In contrast, Amazon and Whole Foods held 2.2% of the U.S. grocery market. This is up from 1.6% in 2017, it reports.

For grocery discounters like and , rapid expansion and increasing pricing pressure are expected into the future. On the other hand, the report predicts that regional chains like and will gain in market share.

The extensive document written on the U.S. grocery industry outlines the main trends, highlighting that Amazon is expected to "cause disruption". They attribute this to the fact that the chain is expanding its cashierless stores and will open its first conventional in 2020.

"We expect the food sector to face challenging conditions in 2020," the article quoted from a UBS analyst.

In these conditions, online sales will be increasingly important despite only making up 4% of food retail sales, the analyst said.

A large percentage of sales also come from independents and smaller chains - making the market rather fragmented, UBS analysts say.

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