Over 20% of Grocery Retail is likely to move online by 2026 according to a recent Supermarket News article. That’s big news, but equally big is that the vast majority of online grocery shoppers prefer click-and-collect over home delivery. Seventy-six percent of respondents said they favor in-store (44%) and curbside (31%) pickup, compared with 24% preferring delivery. Consumers don’t like to pay for home delivery, […]
Omnichannel
4 Great Omnichannel Retail Service Providers
At the recent NGA (National Grocer’s Association) conference, I spoke with a group of parallel but different companies that help independent grocery retailers get their e-commerce up-and- running. Shop Hero, Rosie, Local Express and EGrowcery, while different, all provide tech, web design and product images, inventory tie-ins, and linkages to delivery services. Together, these service bundles jump-start retailers to a high-level of e-commerce; for both delivery and click-and-collect. With these services […]
2 Ways Local Grocery Retailers Can Compete in Omnichannel
I recently attended the National Grocers Association (NGA) tradeshow and conference in Las Vegas. Notable for me were two conference sessions on e-commerce. Micro Fulfillment Centers (MFC’s) The first covered micro fulfillment centers (MFC’s) – small, largely automated vertical warehouses, provided by AutoStore. These MFC’s pick and pack online grocery orders for online shoppers. Whether for click-and-collect, or delivery. 6 times faster […]
Kroger to Roll Out More Ocado Automated Customer Fulfillment Warehouses
Grocery giant Kroger is opening an Ocado automated fulfillment warehouse (customer fulfillment center or CFC) for home delivery in the Northeast soon. They have no stores in the Northeast, so this is an e-commerce only move for Kroger. They already operate a CFC in central Florida, with more planned in Florida, California and the South. These operations can deliver to a 90-mile radius and can […]
3 Reasons Stores Aren’t Going Away and 2 Reasons (some of them) Are.
Sign of the times; Geoffrey the Giraffe, the Toys R Us mascot, leaving the last Toys R Us Store! As many of us are (retail is a $5 Trillion industry) I’m researching, observing and discussing (obsessing) a lot about what’s really happening in physical retail, e-Commerce and the convergence of the two – omni-channel. And […]
Why ‘Omni-channel’ in Retailing is Here to Stay
Some retail thinkers and writers do not like the term omni-channel, feeling it is just another over-used example of business jargon. I don’t like jargon any more than anyone else, but after having done a ton of research on the current and future state of retail (for my upcoming book), I haven’t been able to find […]
