Multi-Channel Commerce & Retailing

Everywhere you go, you can see ads for diets, healthy living or gyms. The media are full of stories about Madonna's personal trainer, the slow food organisation or TV shows such as "You are what you eat" in the UK. But one place is strangely very shy about this global phenomenon: our local grocer! Only a few grocers have addressed this issue seriously and as usual there are a lot of things that grocers could achieve online that would not be possible in the brick and mortar world - here are a few best practices to start with:

1/ Calorie checker - My Supermarket:

The first idea will be to help people choose products with fewer calories to help them reduce their intake. This will be particularly appreciated by people trying to loose weight as you could easily imagine it. Mysupermarket.co.uk has a good example of such a feature with their Health Checker, basically they propose to their customers alternatives with fewer calories. A very simple idea, which remains unmatched by online grocers in the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They also have what they call "Traffic Lights" which are helphing their customers comparing Fat, Saturated Fat, Sugar and Salt with a colour indicator (Green, Amber, Red). Again it remains unmatched by most grocers.

 2/ Guiding Stars - Hannaford:

Comparing every product to find a healthier option can be difficult and not all of us want to spend time looking at every detail (fat, sugar, salt, vitamins etc...). For most of us, we want our grocery shopping to be quick and enjoyable. Since we are now quite used to ratings and reviews, Hannaford has created a program which helps their customers choose healthy options in the blink of an eye: The Guiding Stars Program. They have asked nutritionists to evaluate their grocery products and rate them depending on their nutritional values on a scale of 1 to 3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hannaford is not selling groceries online but they have leveraged this program to show to their customers how they can save money in opting for healthier products or cook healthier with a set of recipes.

3/ Foodflex - Safeway:

Foodflex is probably the most sophisticated nutrition program created by a grocer. Through Foodflex Safeway customers can see their purchase history and see trends by nutritients over a period of time and compare it with the advised quantity. The Foodflex program also helps Safeway's customers pick healthier alternatives depending on the nutrients they are interested in.

The Foodflex program is not yet integrated with the online shopping experience as Safeway customers can only print a list of products and then go and buy them in-store or online. But you could easily imagine such a program being the source of a personalised recommendation section of a site where you could ask such a tool to optimise your shopping for a specific need (e.g. I want to increase my Calcium intake or reduce my Salt intake).

Conclusions: 

Health and Fitness are two major worries for the online groceries shoppers but so far most of the grocers have failed to match their expectations. The online channel can be the most effective in this domain as the shoppers could set up a fully personalised experience (e.g. I want to reduce fat, I am allergic to peanuts) through basic configurators and grocers could benefit from this by proposing a differentiating service helping them gaining market shares. Personalisation in the groceries world is more about responding to shoppers' physical needs than running marketing campaign based on segment. Grocers, who understand this, will probably see a substantial increase in revenue in the coming years.

Posted by Guillaume Vingtier at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

A year ago it was all about green retailing, organic food, recycling, carbon footprint – Things have dramatically changed for online grocers in 12 months. The high street is considerably changing with a few well-known brands disappearing: Woolworths in the UK probably being the most famous example. In 2009 times will be even more difficult for grocers as the consumers mind is now focused on price and a lot of them are turning to value-focused chains instead of the traditional leaders (Tesco, Carrefour). For some retailers the credit crunch or recession is an opportunity to gain market shares, Poundland (the UK chain selling everything at a unique price: £1) is planning to open 35 stores in 2009 (200 stores currently) and Asda (the UK branch of Wal Mart) reported serving 1.3 million more customers than the previous year in the week leading up to December 25 but for most of them it will mean loss of revenue and market shares. While the most logical answer to this is to lower prices and offer better deals (buy one get one free etc…), I believe there are a few things online grocers could do to re-assure their customers on their price policy:

1/ Get the basics right: communicate more effectively on your discount:

This is probably the easiest one, as all you need (once you agreed on your price and promotions strategy) is to ask your creative team to design a price-centered banner which you will strategically place on your home page. A bargain category accessible from the top menu is probably also a must have. These techniques have been used for years and are nothing new but I find surprising today that most grocers are still failing to do so. For example, the day Asda announced the introduction of a £1 range, this information was not clearly displayed in my Asda.co.uk store and I was not able to find these products!

2/ Propose cheaper alternatives:

Most retailers offer a vast range of products with different sizes and prices. Sometimes it is not easy to catch the best bargain and you can feel some uneasiness about it: did I pay the best price?

That’s something that a website can probably do better than a brick and mortar store. A website knows what you have in your basket and can help you optimizing it with cheaper alternatives for the same product (other variants) or through substitution (another way for retailers to promote their own label). Some retailers like Tesco have already done so, but they can go one step further like mysupermarket.co.uk did with their basket optimizer (see screenshots below). Basically they are clearly highlighting to their customer how much they are able to make them save throughout their shopping experience and then are able to propose them to swap products for cheaper alternatives – a clever move which remains unmatched by the online grocers.

3/ Compare your price more effectively and offer price feeds:

Traffic to price comparison websites is soaring for one good reason: people are seeking the best deals. While it is clear that consumers perceive some brands as being cheaper, the reality can be different as I discovered myself in comparing my trolley between 4 of the biggest supermarket chains in the UK. As the result of this comparison I did not change my habits but it was clear to me that my “local” .com store was not highlighting enough that it was as cheap or even cheaper that its main competitor. Consumers are used to see price of other supermarkets while shopping in store but this remains fairly unusual or poorly implemented on most grocer’s websites.

Once again mysupermarket.co.uk has created something (see screenshot below) that the grocers are not able to compete with: they are able to display the value of the same trolley between 4 chains to help the customers choose the right one. While comparing trolleys can be difficult at times as assortment can vary, it is clearly a strong indicator of price competitiveness.

 

Integrating the price comparison features or sub-sites that online grocers created through the years into the main shopping experience will probably help them to build the trust and loyalty they need from their customers.

The other critical thing will be to offer accurate and real-time price and inventory feeds to price comparison sites. Most retailers do not do that and as result their price updates or inventory changes can look incorrect on price comparison websites which could lead to a costly mistake.

4/ Answer the real question: towards a budget optimizer?

But most of the websites you can visit linked with groceries are still failing on one of the most basic question a struggling mum could ask herself: How can I feed my family with my budget?

All the websites will be able to tell you the price of your trolley and eventually help you to reduce it but none is able to create a trolley based on a budget, dietetic preferences or recipes. This is definitely something online grocers could explore as offering services such as meal planning or budget controller will help them retain the “alpha mum” they are all looking for.

Posted by Guillaume Vingtier at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)