Whether for curbside pickup or home delivery, there are many advantages to grocery shopping online: saving time, avoiding lines and of course, letting someone else do the work. Buying fresh fruits and packaged products from the comfort of home, with just a short wait for delivery or a few minutes in the car, sounds like a no-brainer.
Online grocery shopping has escalated in popularity over the past few years, picking up steam in the first two quarters of 2020. “Home delivery and store pickup online grocery sales reached a new 30-day record for April, hitting $5.3 billion and marking a 37% increase from $4 billion in March,” according to the latest Brick Meets Click and Symphony RetailAI online grocery survey. Additionally, “U.S. online grocery sales grew 22% in 2019 and, propelled by high demand from nationwide lockdowns, stand to surge about 40% this year,” according to the Coresight Research U.S. Online Grocery Survey 2020.
Online grocery shopping is convenient for a variety of obvious reasons. But what happens when someone else shops FOR someone else? And where does Retail Space Solutions and its line of pusher display systems fit in?
For online shopping to be profitable, staff picking the online orders need to do so efficiently, quickly and without error. That process is vastly improved when products in stock are easy to spot. That’s where pusher systems come in.
Pusher trays from Retail Space Solutions ensure products are front-faced and visible at all times. This speeds up order fulfilment by helping store shoppers spot and grab products on their lists more quickly. Similarly, pusher systems make it quick for stockers to identify out-of-stocks.
So, what happens with out-of-stocks? Typically, customers have the option to forego the item or their shopper can replace the item with one that’s nearly identical. If a store shopper finds a particular product is out of stock, they’ll notify the customer and ask if they would like the item to be substituted with a similar product or left out of the cart completely.
With pusher systems in place, it’s fast and easy for the store shopper to take note of which products are available.
For instance, if the store is out of the brand of smoked turkey breast the customer requested, the shopper can recommend another brand. Pushers, like SpaceGrid® II, make it clear which brands are available. The return-or-replace option is typically communicated in real time via text message or store mobile app’s chat feature.
Retail Space Solutions continuously keeps a close eye on grocery store trends, which are the key drivers for the design and overall function of our products. With pusher systems installed, the grocery picking is more efficient and helps protect margins.