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Online Grocery
Online Grocery is the act of consumers or customers buying foodstuffs, various household and everyday supplies
via the Internet. It is similar in concept to the physical aspect of consumers going down personally to any of such
stores to purchase the necessary everyday commodities or as and when required to.
Online grocers are sellers who deal with grocery products and may or may not have their personal shop front(s) for
selling grocery. However, it is for certain that they are required to sell or
promote the products pertaining to grocery on the Internet through any form of websites and be able to conduct
online transactions of trade to be headlined under this term.
To be able to shop online, consumers must have access to any computer connected to the net and majority of them
should have their own credit card or other forms of cash-less method to pay. This will let consumers have more
options of choosing the either the convenient way of obtaining their grocery or the hassle of spending time going
down to the desired grocery store or supermarket and engaging in long queues
just to achieve the same objective.
Online Grocery is a form of business-to-consumer (B2C) transaction.
Online Grocery shopping has yet to become popular but is fast becoming a rising trend and has the potential to extend its influence much faster than actual grocery shopping which has reached saturation point and is likely to be on the declining trend in the near future.
History of Online Grocery Shopping
Online grocery shopping came about in the US in the mid-1990s during the
"dotcom" craze. However, it stagnated for quite some time as consumers weren't yet ready to trust the internet with
something as important as their grocery lists. However, now that internet
shopping is such an enormously gigantic business, it's no wonder that there is a new buzz around online grocery
shopping. If you are going to give it a try, you should have a high-speed internet connection. Using a dial-up connection
will be very slow and frustrating, and you'll end up having to spend more time buying groceries from your home computer
than you would probably spend driving to the store as you normally do.
Trends in Online Grocery Shopping
When an online grocery shopper has a good first experience with a certain website sixty percent of the time they
will return to that website to buy more.
According to research found in the Journal of Electronic Commerce, if we focus on the demographic characteristics
of the in-home shopper, in general, the higher the level of education, income, and occupation of the head of the
household, the more favourable the perception of non-store grocery shopping.
One knows exactly which website to enter, how much on the average the goods will cost, and the time taken for
the goods to reach them. Online grocery shopping has become extremely routine and predictable, which is one of its
greatest appeals to the consumer.
The moment a consumer selects a product or finishes his/her selection, most online grocery retailers will
employ the shopping cart software which will tabulate the cost of items in
the shopping cart with the option of allowing consumers to adjust the quantity of items in the shopping cart list,
by analogy with filling a physical shopping cart or basket in a conventional
store. One such shopping cart with user-friendly features can be found in Yumtrade. A "checkout" process follows
(continuing the physical-store analogy) in which payment and delivery information is collected, if necessary. Some stores
allow consumers to sign up for a permanent online account so that some or all of the user's necessary information only
needs to be entered once. The consumer often receives an e-mail confirmation once the transaction is complete. Less
sophisticated stores may rely on consumers to phone or e-mail their orders (though credit card numbers are not accepted
by e-mail, for security reasons).
Payment
Online grocery shoppers normally use credit card to make payments due to the fact they usually buy in bulk, however
some systems enable customers to create personal accounts and pay by alternative means, such as:
- Debit card
- Various types of electronic money
- Cash on delivery (C.O.D., offered by very few online stores)
- Cheque
- PayPal
- Google Checkout
Product delivery
Once a payment has been accepted the goods can be delivered in the following ways.
- Delivery: The products are sent to the customer's address.
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In-store pickup : The customer orders online, finds a local store using
locator software and picks the products up at the closest store.
Of course, majority of the customers will want their grocery being delivered right to the doorstep instead of
going to the nearest store to collect their purchase as it will defeat the
main purpose of doing online grocery shopping. People usually do their grocery shopping online so as to cut down on
the time and effort(physically) taken otherwise spent to do normal grocery
shopping. Despite that, there definitely will be people who think that the delivery fee spent on online grocery
and checking out the conditions of grocery on the spot outweighs the cost of time and effort to lug the bags of
grocery back home, but these are most likely the minority.
Usually, online grocers only cater to consumers living within a certain district or location because of the
fragility and the freshness of the said products. Therefore, it is quite difficult to guarantee the condition of
the grocery if such grocers are to deliver the consumers' purchase over a long distance, like state to state or
country to country.
However, since majority of grocery shopping are usually done in bulk, the more convenient and cost-effective
(time, physical effort) way of receiving your grocery is by delivery up to your doorstep like what one of the website
known as Yumtrade has to offer.
Consumers’ demands and expectations
Satisfactory:
- Increased customization, e.g. "capability to treat customers as individuals".
- Able to do online grocery shopping 24/7.
- Discounts resulting in lower prices
- Able to fulfill most shoppers' needs. Comparison between several online
stores at once.
Unsatisfactory (unsatisfactory experiences):
- Low security of online payments
- Not user-friendly
- Poor levels of services
- Varied prices
- Product delivered not in a good condition
Convenience
Online grocery stores allows consumers to make purchases at any time, 24 hours, 7 days a week, and many
consumers have Internet access both at work and at home. A visit to a conventional
retail store requires travel and must take place during business hours.
Searching or looking through an online catalog can be faster than browsing the aisles of a
grocery store. Consumers with normal dial-up Internet connections rather than
broadband have much longer loading time due to the appearance of pictures of products shown on these websites and
have a considerably slower and more frustrating online shopping experience.
Some consumers prefer engaging with grocery store personnel instead of computers (and vice versa), sometimes
due to the more complicated interfaces of the websites. Not all online-grocers
have up-to-date and user-friendly sites.
For efficiency reasons, online grocery stores generally do not delivery
goods immediately upon receiving an order. Orders are only filled during warehouse operating hours, and there may be
a delay in the delivery depending on traffic and weather conditions but not to
a large extent since such online grocers will restrict the area span from the warehouse where the goods are stored.
Many retailers are likely to inform customers the time range at which they can expect their delivery to arrive, and
whether or not they generally have a fulfillment backlog. A quick response time and efficient of its delivery
service is sometimes an important factor in consumers' confidence and trust in the grocery dealer. A disadvantage
of online shopping is that, even if a purchase can be done anytime of the day, the customer must often be at home
during normal business hours to accept the delivery . For many professionals this can be difficult as they have many
time constraints, and absence at the time of delivery can result in delays, or in some cases, return of the grocery
to the retailer. As far as grocery is concerned, it must be usually kept fresh or in a suitable condition and any of
such delay may bring about a decline in the condition of the grocery in question.
In the event of a problem with the item - it is not what the consumer ordered, or it is not of the condition it
is supposed to be in- consumers are concerned with the ease with which they can return an item for the correct one
or for a refund. Consumers may need to contact the retailer, visit the post
office and pay return shipping, and then wait for a replacement or refund. Some online grocery stores have more
generous return policies to compensate for the traditional advantage of physical stores. For example, the
online grocery store Yumtrade offers a thorough check of the condition of the
items are all good and if the purchased item(s) are found damaged, they will either send a replacement free of
charge or they will offer you a refund on the spot. Furthermore, customers are allowed to return the item that you
do not desire within 1-3 business days by contacting them as long as the original packaging and receipt are kept
intact.
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