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Online ordering apps leverage grocery's penetration, frequency and scale



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Online ordering apps leverage grocery's penetration, frequency and scale

It looks like many smaller markets in the US will help lead the way in the growth of online grocery shopping – especially with the assistance of entrepreneurs who are creating online ordering and delivery apps/services that regional and independent retailers can plug into their offering.

Upstate NY Rosie app is one example. It joins the likes of GrocerKey out of Madison, WI, PrestoFresh out of Cleveland, OH and Shipt, which will start delivering groceries in Birmingham, AL this spring.  All of these regional online ordering and delivery apps are rapidly extending the availability of online grocery shopping to independent grocers and regional chains. The synergy makes sense – most of these retailers have well-defined market niches and the apps are a safe and productive way to expand from them.

Where’s the "sweet spot"?

While grocers and food are a part of this story, the innovation is ultimately about online ordering and delivery services, not online grocery.  Services like RosieApp and GrocerKey leverage the penetration, frequency and scale of grocery.

Learning from these apps:

  • Startups like Rosie talk a lot about individual features they offer to customers (see this Ithaca Times article). This takes the whole discussion down to “treetop” level, giving us a good view into the basis for building a list of features that need to be included.
  • Retailers who adopt these systems have grasped what others have not – that there’s both competitive advantage and real growth potential in moving to online grocery.  Interestingly, smaller organizations seem less likely to be held back by internal tension generated by those who don’t want online to succeed because they want to protect the store.
  • Customer comments show that shoppers like online grocery and will use it when and where it works from their point of view. There’s clearly an opportunity, at least for now, to charge more for online orders. It’s a value-added service that’s well worth the cost in order to get the greater convenience. One big job moving forward is to define more precisely what this convenience means; clearly, it goes well beyond just saving time.

POV

While many large retailers are making a major investment in technology in order to win the maximum share of the online grocery business, the speed of innovation combined with the growth of online providers and increased competition makes it a potentially risky strategy.

Who knows enough about what customers will want two to three years from now to bet millions of dollars on something that won’t even be into the market for 18 months? That's a tough question, but one worth asking.

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BlackBeltPJ Stafford said:
There is also the pioneer, My Web Grocer, though the SaaS version of their platform (the one that is cheaper and faster to roll out) uses their older user interface and not the more updated one they have on their latest licensed server software.

Also worth looking at is Freshop.io Once you get past the odd URL....You get both a good grocery webstore AND an Apple and Android App and the pricing seems modest at $5k per store per year with no transaction fees. (It doesn't provide the actual local delivery service, but has an interface that supports click and collect).

People ask me if Instacart has so many downsides then what other options does a store have short of spending a lot of money and time on a custom solution (see my concerns about Instacart from a store perspective here: http://www.brickmeetsclick.com/instacart-s-pricing-pivot-raises-3-questions )

I think these SaaS options, especially ones with a mobile app that can conform to your branding, are worth a close look.

PJ Stafford
Honest Green, the ecommerce Division of UNFI

BlackBeltMike Spindler said:
Hard to disagree with P.J., particularly given my background at MWG. However, the interface does not solve for the pick and deliver elements, that many of these regional and some of the larger (Instacart) guys offer. At some point the economics will work themselves out, but trying to "catch" the consumer with a home built or custom application sounds like risky business.

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