Periodically I try and venture into the world of buying groceries online. I buy lots of things online regularly but the truth of the matter is I have never got around completing an order online and getting it delivered. To put it mildly, the task of buying grocery online today is at best difficult and at worst just not worth the effort. So here’s my top 5 reasons on why I am still far away from crossing the tipping line and by groceries online:
Delivery Charges
One would require a Maths degree to go through the complex tables that each online Retailer provides to choose when they can get the order delivered and is a bit like playing Russian Roulette. The best slots are always the most expensive and there is a different rate offered if a minimum order value is reached. It reminds me of the recent uproar caused in USA when Bank of America decided to charge customers for using Debit cards. The bottom line is I don’t like to get charged to get my groceries delivered let alone sit and prod on which is the best time slot and weigh that against the amount of money I need to pay.
I realise that Retailers cannot offer free delivery and a compromise should be reached. The best model that I see winning a lot of friends is Amazon Prime. It offers a Flat fee and increasingly a lot of more value getting added such as with Amazon Prime and Kindle Fire. Why can’t grocery retailers adopt a similar model? Ocado has given it a try; however, it is a much complicated version of Amazon Prime with different options depending on when you want the order delivered.
Delivery time slots
The beauty of shopping for groceries inside the store is that you can do it pretty much at will with many Retailers having stores that are open 24 hours or close late at night.
Buying groceries online takes away that freedom and instead engages you in a complex dance of available and no-available slots and charges.
Pick-up from instore
Offering online groceries poses the Retailers of where to pick the stock from. The most logical model would be to pick the stock from your local store, where you would have shopped otherwise. However, this raises many complexities such as not being able to offer an extended range, insufficient stocks, substitution and issues with logistics. A central fulfilment (or regional) centre solves this complexity for Retailers, but increases the distance between where stock is picked and eventually delivered and is partially responsible for the complex Delivery time slots issue.
From a customer’s perspective the option to order online and pick-up from a store of choice (usually the local store either near home or place of work) would be nearly as effective as the convenience of getting the order delivered at home. This solves 2 issues for retailers of not having to deal with the complexity of delivery time slots and delivery charges leading to happy customers.
Online experience does not match in-store experience
This is an age old argument that Online retailing does not offer the same experience as the real life experience of being in the store. This is further accentuated when shopping for groceries as it is always very interesting for me to walk through the aisles, looking at the various choices, bumping into friends and regular shoppers and the fascinating change in the decor as we move from one festivity to another through the year.
Online shopping technology does not offer ‘Aisles’ to shop from but grids, lists and search boxes to interact with. Searching from products in aisles is more natural for me than combing online lists. The improvements in display technologies will make this less of an issue in the future. Fair credit needs to be given to Ocado who are trying their best to improve shopping online as easy as possible through the use of Avatars, shopping profiles and recommendations.
Online is NOT my local store with my familiar aisles
The final reason in my list is that my local store offers a range that is customised to the demographics of the area. So even though there is a Tesco and a Sainsbury’s near to where I live, I tend to shop always at Tesco because they have an aisle dedicated to Asian groceries. Upon reflection for more than 90% of my visits I do not buy from the Asian aisle, but psychologically and subconsciously it is reassuring that the aisle is there.
It would be great if groceries online can offer to load a template of my store of choice with similar aisles to make the experience that much more familiar and easy. After all much of Retail from a consumer’s perspective is to do with intuition, trust and a sense of comfort than Science!