Consumers’ increasing adoption of grocers’ in-house eCommerce options is eating into retailers' margins amid ongoing financial challenges. Grocery giant Albertsons Companies, Inc., which has more than 2,200 locations across 34 states, reported financial results for the quarter ended Dec. 2 on Tuesday (Jan. 9), noting that it has seen strong growth in its digital business—a 21% year-over-year increase in eCommerce sales—but that this shift comes with near-term challenges. Indeed, digital sales are costlier to fulfill than brick-and-mortar, demanding the labor to pick the products either from the store or from a dedicated fulfillment center and then, in the case of delivery purchases, to bring them to consumers’ doors. In fact, some grocers have been decelerating or even reversing course on their direct fulfillment businesses in light of these challenges. It is not only the labor cost; the technology can also be difficult and costly to build out for grocers.