Bucking the trend that has seen grocery delivery sales decline over the past several months, online ordering and pickup in stores remain popular among shoppers. According to the latest figures from Brick Meets Click and Mercatus, “The share of orders received through pickup grew nearly seven points year-over-year to 42%, while the share of delivery and ship-to-home orders dropped two and four points, respectively.”
One-third of grocery customers online utilized pickup exclusively. Alternatively, 16% used delivery.
With the increased demand for grocery pickup among shoppers, grocers have been moving quickly to improve their Click & Collect operations over the past year.
Big box stores like Walmart are investing in loyalty programs and efficiencies like warehouse automation that appeal to their online shoppers. Other grocers are following suit and introducing service elements in pickup, which includes automated kiosks and lockers, making filling grocery orders simpler and more profitable.
United Supermarkets has gone a step further and has utilized satellite technology to enhance their grocery pickup orders. This allows customers to use their smartphones to share their location and signal their arrival in the pickup zone at the store. Not only does this procedure reduce the time spent by the grocers to fulfill orders, it also allows the customers to receive their groceries faster.
Teaming up with Walmart on its in-store pickup towers, Cleveron offers grocers temperature-controlled pickup lockers, allowing for hot and cold zones for groceries. Shoppers can access these lockers with PINs and even QR codes.
The Cleveron grocery kiosks are designed to be an outdoor solution that can solve last-mile challenges. These units can be placed anywhere, including next to office buildings or in rural areas where grocers don’t have a physical store.
Pickup-only locations like dark stores are also emerging. Dark stores are former supermarket spaces converted into an e-commerce warehouse, meeting online demand more efficiently because they take out the complexity of operating in an in-store environment.
Dark stores are creating an industry buzz, but before retailers consider dark stores, it’s important to think about the in-store shoppers who collect pickup orders as well. According to the ChaseDesign BOPIS survey, 90% of shoppers still go into the store when picking up an order.
Increased foot traffic inside the store allows grocers to boost in-store sales. By making simple changes to their product displays, retailers can draw customers further into the store and encourage them to make a purchase.
Customers are drawn to attractive, organized product displays. On the other hand, poor shelf management can lead to cluttered displays, false out-of-stocks and ultimately frustrated shoppers. Make purchasing decisions easier for your customers with pusher display systems from Retail Space Solutions, which keep products on the shelf organized and front-faced, reducing or eliminating false out-of-stocks.
For more information on pusher display systems from Retail Space Solutions, visit www.retailspacesolutions.com or call 1-800-279-5291.