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TORONTO — Online grocery sales remain a minuscule part of the food retail landscape, but they could be a good source of added revenue from customers who are making fewer overall trips to the grocery store.

The number of times time-strapped consumers have gone to buy groceries at a supermarket has declined seven per cent since 2012, according to the market research firm Nielsen — a “trip compression” total of 175 million store visits, Carman Allison, vice president of consumer insights, told an audience at the Retail Council of Canada’s Store 2017 conference on Wednesday.

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Retailers prefer that customers visit stores more frequently, because every trip to the store represents an opportunity for impulse buying, bumping up the total size of the grocery basket beyond planned purchases.

“We are seeing a decline on overall traffic,” Allison said. “But even though you have fewer opportunities to engage in the store, with digital, you have more opportunities (as a retailer) to engage and interact with the consumer.”