Many small grocery stores already offer online sales and curbside pickup, but hesitate when it comes to adding a delivery option. Unfortunately, that means when a customer needs to have groceries delivered, they’ll turn to your big-box rivals.
It’s time to win those customers back!
However, we know better than most that implementing online deliveries can be challenging. That’s why we’ve compiled the major online delivery challenges grocery stores face — this way, we can show you how to overcome them.
There are two common, but extremely frustrating scenarios that often happen when shopping for groceries online:
Either way, when customers are uncertain about the status of the items listed online, they’re much less likely to actually use it as an ordering option.
That’s bad news for your bottom line. Most customers don’t only shop online or in store — and customers who use multiple channels (e.g. online and in store) will spend up to four times more than those who only shop in store.
In other words, a frustrating online shopping experience doesn’t just prevent you from getting new customers, but from increasing sales from your existing customers, too.
Some stockouts and substitutions are inevitable, but the right inventory management software goes a long way toward preventing these problems in the first place.
The inventory management tools included in a modern point of sale (POS) solution sync your in-store and online inventory. This ensures that when customers order from your online store, they see an up-to-date list of products with an accurate list of stocking status. It also pushes any new product information directly onto the webstore without a manual update.
However, some items are not a good fit for online sales, or won’t fit your logistics capacity to ship them. In this case, you may choose to set certain items as exempt from online sales — customers can still see them, but not put them in their carts.
An integrated inventory system is a must, whether you’re hosting your own online store or using a third-party pickup service like Instacart.
Setting low-stock alerts on high-volume and popular items helps you reorder stock at the correct time, but also warns you if your online orders are about to affect in-store stock levels.
Once you’ve spent enough time doing online deliveries, you can look at your online sales versus your in-store sales to see if any particular items or product categories sell more online — this way, you can adjust your merchandise planning accordingly.
One of the most important things that small, family-owned grocery stores can do to stay competitive with big chains is to find more places to connect with customers and make sales wherever they are.
This strategy is called “omnichannel sales” and is increasingly the norm for many retail industries. Examples of grocery store sales channels include:
However, the more places you sell, the more chances there are for orders to fall through the cracks — especially if you’re tracking orders by hand.
Selling online across channels doesn’t mean you must have a Frankenstein setup of different software. Instead, use a POS system that integrates with multiple sales channels and supports omnichannel order management.
This ensures that all of your orders, whether they’re for delivery or curbside pickup, are filtered into a single dashboard. This gives you a clear overview of in-progress orders so you can prioritize them and communicate with customers about substitutions.
You can also set up different workflows depending on the type of order, creating more consistency for staff as your online sales grow.
For better or worse, many customers are now used to getting everything delivered right to their door — even if that’s just a couple of purchases.
Large online sellers like Amazon make up costs for shipping these small items through their subscription programs, grouping hundreds of orders on a single truck, and other cost-saving factors that a large corporate entity can afford.
Your small grocery store, on the other hand, won’t have these resources, and delivering small orders might not be worth it. If orders are too small, the delivery costs could very well exceed your profit margins.
Plus, customers who want to put in a $15 order might be completely put off by an $8 delivery fee, which slows down adoption of your online store.
Delivery fees are a necessity for most small grocery online stores, but there are a few things you can do to create a fairer shopping experience for customers:
It’s worth stressing the importance of communication. A minimum order amount or small grocery delivery fee is not the end of the world for most people, but it will be perceived differently if it comes as a surprise and is not stated upfront.
The handy thing about curbside pickup is that once the order is prepped, customers do the final steps themselves. In delivery, getting this order from the store to a customers’ door, called “last-mile logistics”, is arguably the most complicated step.
Inefficient last-mile planning leads to delayed orders and frustrated customers. While most people are reasonable and won’t expect a small business to be on the same level of efficiency as an Amazon or a Walmart, consistency matters!
Slow or inconsistent delivery makes your online brand seem more unreliable on the whole, negating the convenience of online grocery shopping that makes it popular in the first place.
It’s one thing to handle curbside pickup for online orders, but taking the next step to delivery is a new level of logistical challenge.
The first solution is to facilitate online delivery through third parties like Instacart and Mercato. This eliminates some of the logistical hurdles you have to jump through by having independent pickers and delivery people come to the store, prepare orders, and deliver them.
The second solution is to use an integrated last-mile delivery provider. These services integrate directly with your order fulfillment and inventory systems, and manage the route planning and vehicle timing themselves (for an extra fee).
These companies take some of the planning burden off of you, but you’ll need to adjust your delivery fees accordingly.
Related Read: Grocery Shopping Behavior: Using Customer Patterns To Increase Sales
Imagine you’re planning meals for the week and have a big salad planned. You order from your local grocery online because you’re busy and they have the freshest produce in town. But when the order shows up, the lettuce is wilted, the cucumbers are soft, and the whole box is lukewarm, wet, and feels like it was sitting around for a while before it reached you.
Sure, you can get a refund, but your evening is completely thrown off. Would you give the online ordering another chance after that? For most people, the answer is a solid “no.”
Unlike preparing a general retail order, many grocery store items are on a ticking clock in terms of freshness the minute they’re removed from the shelf or refrigerator. Even with a refrigerated staging area (which is ideal), some produce will begin to dry out if left uncovered for too long.
With orders piling in, it can be difficult to get the timing of order preparation just right.
As a small grocery store, you simply won’t have the logistical tools and resources available to huge competitors like Amazon or Walmart, who can easily send out a constantly rotating series of deliveries at all times of day.
Instead of an ad hoc delivery process, create delivery windows where all the day’s orders are prepared and packed simultaneously. You can also set up multiple windows if you have the order volume and can justify the extra labor.
This ensures that orders aren’t being prepared too early and sitting around in a warm corner. Integrating your POS system with picking apps that help employees or third-party pickers efficiently prepare multiple orders can also be beneficial.
Make it clear to customers exactly when the cutoff is for different order windows and how long it typically takes to deliver.
If you’ve done a good job with your grocery store marketing, then your customers probably have a specific feeling when it comes to your brand. Everything from your store colors to your loyalty program to your checkout experience works to create a subtle emotional connection with your customers.
But if that experience is significantly different online, it can cause whiplash with customers — a feeling that something isn’t right. If they’re being redirected from your site to another site, it can also hurt your chances of showing up higher in online search results.
While not directly related to grocery delivery logistics, the services you use can have a major impact on customers’ perception of your brand.
Even grocery stores that offer online sales may end up using a separate service to handle their deliveries. However, if the service is too different and redirects customers away from your site, it can suddenly feel like they’re shopping from a different store altogether.
Instead, use fresh food online sales tools that integrate directly with your current website and inventory systems. This allows you to add another online option while still maintaining important aspects of the shopping experience, like your brand colors, loyalty point integration, and payment methods.
Creating a familiar experience, no matter where a customer shops, can help convert a customer who might otherwise be on the fence about trying delivery.
There’s a saying: “Ignorance is bliss.”
Unfortunately, that’s not true for online orders (sorry, Thomas Gray). When a grocery store goes silent about things like item substitutions, order status, delivery status, and payment, customers feel like they’re being left in the dark.
Ultimately, a lack of communication can erode trust in your online deliveries, even if they’re otherwise working as expected.
Manually sending out updates to customers every time their order status changes is a fool’s errand. It’s time-consuming and requires a manager or employee to be glued to the order status screen.
Luckily, technology makes updating customers much easier. Many omnichannel POS systems include automated messaging features, which send out messages via email or SMS whenever an order is:
You should also set up workflows that prompt manual communication when you need to make substitutions or other changes in the order. Some substitutions are inevitable, and the sooner customers know about them, the better.
Speaking generally, online grocery delivery is dominated by massive brands right now — but it’s not too late for small grocery stores to compete.
Adding an online shopping option for your grocery store helps you drive more revenue from your loyal customers and puts your store in front of more people. However, that added convenience for your customers shouldn’t come at the cost of added stress for you.
IT Retail’s flexible grocery store POS system supports a wide range of e-commerce integrations, including connected inventory tools, InstaCart, and third-party support, as well as support for last-mile and cold-shipping logistics.
Everyone’s exact needs are different, though, and it’s important not to overpay for features you don’t need. If you’re considering upgrading your grocery store POS system, check out our flexible pricing tiers to find the right solution for your business.