If you read my blog post last week, you’d know that there are new methods of checking out at the grocery store. But what if I told you that you didn’t even have to leave the house to ‘do the grocery shopping?’
For all those out there who hate grocery shopping, I have some good news!! Online grocery shopping is here, and will become much more popular and convenient in the coming years.
The current method for online orders at Coles Supermarkets involves choosing your grocery items online via the supermarkets website. A team member is then in charge of locating all the grocery items in the shop, packing them and storing them in a delivery van which then delivers the groceries to the customers home, and even carries them to the kitchen bench. Seems quite inefficient right?
That’s because it is. This article notes “by the time store staff have rummaged around the supermarket shelves, picked the order and put it on a truck to deliver to the door, the profit margin has shrunk to zero.” Unsurprisingly if you ask me.
The article states that online orders currently make up 3% of overall sales at Coles Supermarkets, however is on the rise. What I do find surprising is that Coles is still trying to increase their online shopping market by actively promoting online shopping by offering free delivery and $10 off the first online shop despite virtually no profits on these sales . . . at the moment.
However, Coles has just invested up to $150 million in a partnership with Ocado, a UK company disrupting the digital retail marketing
Take a look at these two videos
The promising thing with online shopping is the ability to tailor the experience to the individual shopper based on their previous shopping habits – giving each customer a personalised online shopping experience.
Ocado aims to increase the efficiency of the online process – team members rummaging shelves be gone! – robots enter! The robots have the capability to select 50 typical items in just minutes as mentioned in this article by Harvard Business Review. Human error will also be eradicated, increasing the product efficiency of the online order and customer satisfaction.
What are your thoughts on this new method of online grocery shopping? Do you find those videos as satisfying to watch as I do?
Talking Tech with Bec 
Cool post Rebecca, it’s great to see the development of robotics and AI for retailing. I personally would pay substantially more in retail prices for this convenience.
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Thank you Lavan, it was an interesting topic to research as well! I don’t think you’re alone there Lavan, people are paying more for convenience these days and that goes to show with the amount of effort brands are going to in order to increase convenience. I wonder what will be next!
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I love coles click and collect, your article has got me very excited for what the future will hold!!
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I’m very excited to see what comes next as well, Jess!
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I tried shopping for groceries online for the first time last month! It’s insane how easy everything was. However, I kind of like the feeling of walking through aisles, browsing carefully and picking the exact item I want (especially fresh produce). Do you feel the same way?
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