Grocers trying to navigate during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced numerous challenges that revealed the full impact of not having an ecommerce platform or the vast limitations of their existing technology. With global experts predicting that grocery markets worldwide are expected to grow to $354.2 billion by 2021, the pressure to keep pace with skyrocketing ecommerce demand is real. As customer behavior changes, grocers are looking for ways to quickly catch up to long-predicted ecommerce trends and surpass them to meet the latest customer expectations and needs.
July 2020 data from Salesforce Research found that 55% of worldwide consumers buy online with pick up in-store compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the top qualities that weighed heavily with consumers about purchases and loyalty? A retailer carrying everything they need stocked in one place. A May 2020 survey found 68% of those consumers are likely to continue buying essential goods online even after the health threats of COVID-19 subside.
This leap in consumer confidence in ecommerce for grocery is driving retailer’s need for a highly flexible and scalable ecommerce platform that will enable their customer journey to meet and exceed existing and future consumer demands and expectations. New commerce solutions such as Quick Start Grocery or Fast Commerce Grocery can make it faster and easier than ever before for retailers to start or expand their digital reach to serve customers better.
Navigating the “New Normal” of Online Shopping
The recent pandemic crisis demonstrated just how vital a robust online commerce solution is to essential services like grocery retailers. As customers abandon offline brick-and-mortar stores
in favor of online ordering, delivery and pickup, grocers competing for customer loyalty must ensure and communicate that both of their commerce channels are prepared for any scenario./p>
Using a secure, integrated commerce cloud platform, retailers can control complete order management by connecting commerce and service while using prebuilt apps for payments, shipping, tax, and warehouse management, to achieve a transparent 360-degree view of their customers across all channels. A clear overview of complete customer data across all platforms amplifies grocers’ ability to launch personalized marketing and vital communication campaigns while empowering them to offer a shopping experience specifically tailored to their customers’ individual needs and desires.
Brands seeking to improve their online grocery presence and leverage the full capabilities of a digital transformation project rely on commerce solutions designed specifically for the grocery industry to offer increased functionality. Fast Commerce Grocery, our Salesforce Commerce Cloud-based solution for grocery, offers supermarket industry-specific customizations, including:
- Sell Different Quantities of Products:
Merchants can sell products by weight, items, or packages.
- Launch a Large Variety of Promotions Daily:
Show messages for all active promotions on each product tile, for example, “Buy 2, get another FREE.”
- Shopping List Creation:
Customers can create, manage, modify, delete, and control multiple shopping lists. From the My Account page, they can modify their shopping list(s), and add products (all or individual items) to their shopping cart.
- Packaging Instructions:
Customers can add packaging instructions in the pop-up window that appears when placing the order (i.e., please do not use plastic bags).
Now more than ever, global online grocery markets find their ecommerce systems lack the necessary flexibility to meet their company’s business needs and keep up with their customers’ growing expectations. OSF Digital has a deep understanding of pain points, challenges, and objectives in the supermarket retail industry. OSF Digital delivers some of the most extensive projects in the commerce space, helping manage multiple brands within a single site. Our solution can improve customer service, delivery process, and customer satisfaction while providing a positive and personalized customer experience with a full range of payment options.
Not Online Yet? Launch an Online Shop or Brand in Only 4 Weeks
Grocery retailers may be surprised to learn it’s possible to sell directly to consumers and launch an online grocery shop in weeks, not months. Quick Start Grocery, developed by OSF Digital and powered by Salesforce Commerce Cloud, is a scalable, innovative solution allowing retailers to open a new revenue and distribution channel to sell groceries and essential products to customers. This all-in-one solution enables grocery retailers to launch quickly, keep pace with changing business requirements and obtain better customer insights.
Quick Start Grocery offers OSF clients :
- Storefront branded theme with a responsive design for web and mobile and a rich multi-level menu for subcategories for strong branding and easy navigation
- Store locator, and select pick up store on check out
- Enhanced product descriptions, including nutritional facts
- ‘Add to cart’ search suggestions
- Order instructions, bagging fees, wish list and scheduled pick up
Quick Start Grocery has flexible functionality and can also be used to launch a small brand or allow your company to offer, for example, a “build an essential box” initiative that includes many types of products from various brands.
Contact OSF Digital to learn how we can help deploy your online grocery store so you can quickly meet your customer’s needs, take advantage of distributed inventory, and gain competitive advantages.
