Since 2019, the food retail market has been booming. Many shoppers still go to the supermarket, but new options keep appearing and taking hold in their habits. Home grocery delivery is one of them, made more popular still by the pandemic. Being able to shop online and have it brought to the door answers several consumer needs and wishes. Given the range of products and the complexity of the logistics, though, handing some or all of your deliveries to an outside provider pays off. Here are four essentials for making the most of this option and giving your customers a positive experience.
Home grocery delivery: a digital revolution in food retail
A market changing constantly since 2019
In 2019, a study by Médiamétrie’s Observatoire des usages Internet found that more than 70% of French people had shopped online between July and September. The study adds that this was a rise of 4.4% in a single year. Online grocery shopping was already growing steadily, but the Covid-19 crisis truly propelled it. With lockdowns, curfews, home working and travel restrictions, buying groceries online proved an ideal solution for consumers. It is a new shopping and consumption habit that could well last, given how widely it has been taken up. That forecast is backed by a study from Criteo Retail Media, which reports that 90% of the French people surveyed planned to keep shopping online after the first lockdown of spring 2020.
A revolution in the way people shop
Doing the shopping no longer means only a trip to the supermarket. Plenty of consumers still go, but new ways of shopping have appeared, such as click and collect and home grocery delivery. With click and collect, customers order their products online and pick them up in store, which puts it at the crossroads of traditional and online retail. With home grocery delivery, the goods bought online go straight to the customer’s home. It also suits a lot of shoppers who cannot always get out easily, and those who are short of time.
Why do consumers have their groceries delivered?
Saving time
Travelling to the shops and doing the weekly shop takes time, no question. Being able to do it online and have it delivered therefore saves customers time. And letting them plan their delivery within a time slot cuts fuel emissions too. By running rounds, you reduce the carbon footprint of vehicles on the road and save your customers fuel as well.
A service that is always open
Shopping online sweeps away the constraint of shop opening hours at a stroke. Consumers can fill their basket at any time of the day or night. They can shop on bank holidays, at weekends, or in whatever slot they have free.
Choice of products and delivery terms
With the boom in online buying and delivery, experiences are increasingly personalised to please every kind of customer. People now expect that sort of service on all their online orders, and plenty of large retailers have understood as much. Letting your customers choose a delivery day and time slot so they can receive the basket they put together online is essential to their satisfaction. It also lets them choose where the delivery goes. Whether that is their workplace or any other address they like, you maximise the chances of a successful delivery and offer a tailored service. Finally, giving them a choice also means the range of products you offer. Because of the delivery step, some consumers assume the products available for delivery are more limited. That is partly because some products are more fragile to carry than others, foodstuffs in particular. Working with an outside logistics partner such as Shippr, which works with professional couriers whose vehicles suit the products being carried, lets you widen the range of products you deliver.
A clear view of the shopping basket
Shopping online gives your customers a clear view of their basket total. Always after more transparency, they can watch the total of their purchases as they shop. For anyone sticking to a set budget, that is a real asset. In the same vein, they can also compare prices and brands more easily. Sorting by price from low to high, or typing a brand name straight into the search bar, is plainly efficient.
Expert help that counts
Have you ever carried your shopping up to a flat on the fourth floor? To avoid that kind of painful moment, plenty of consumers swear by home grocery delivery. Couriers very often help with the bags or bring them straight into the home, sparing customers a lot of back pain. Carrying food is the other recurring headache of the trip to the shops. Instead of making sure they have the right insulated bags and driving carefully so the eggs do not break, consumers can leave that to professionals. Equipped and experienced, couriers know exactly how to handle and carry these fragile products in the best conditions.
How do you improve the home grocery delivery experience? Four essentials
1. Keep your online shopping experience as simple as you can
Make the process disarmingly simple and you will win over even the reluctant, and above all meet the basic needs of the people who use this kind of service. Customers who order online expect a clear, easy process. If they want to save time by not going to a physical shop, they do not want to lose it again on your online system. That comes down to several important factors:
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- a responsive, intuitive site
- a complete, precise presentation of the products
- a choice of time slots
- a secure payment system
2. Make your site responsive on mobile
More and more consumers now do their shopping straight from their phone. So it matters to offer a mobile app, or a site that is responsive, so it works as well on a phone as on a computer screen.
3. Talk to your customers and give them online tracking
Shopping online makes daily life much easier for some consumers, but it does mean taking care over how you communicate with them. Delivery can be a source of anxiety for some. Emails or texts at key moments reduce that negative feeling. So do get in touch:
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- once they have paid online,
- to tell them their order is being picked,
- to recap the day and time slot for the delivery
- or to remind them on the day itself
Offering online tracking of their delivery also plays an important part in the transparency of the delivery.
4. Use a same-day delivery logistics provider
Home grocery delivery cannot be improvised. Given the range of products to carry, you need the right equipment and, above all, experienced couriers. That is why handing some or all of these deliveries to an outside provider is worthwhile. Shippr has made same-day delivery its speciality. That way you can be sure the delivery day is the day your customers receive their shopping. With no middleman in between, the risks to the goods carried drop. We have also built real expertise in delivery rounds. We already run rounds for customers in family meal box delivery, and our technology makes sure the courier gets the most optimised route possible. We also work with transport professionals. They bring their expertise to every delivery and know how to handle and carry all types of goods. Finally, our service covers the full operational management of deliveries, plus communication by email and SMS and real-time tracking. Our support team is available seven days a week and follows every delivery to make sure it runs smoothly.
To find out more about our services and how we can help with your logistics, do talk to one of our business experts.
