Retail giants like Amazon’s ability to effectively address the ever-changing customer demands has enabled it to make its mark in the market and eventually dominating it. However, even though it poses a threat to other grocery retail players due to their delivery capabilities and effective customer service, the changes in customer expectations, especially in the last mile of the customer’s shopping journey, present a tremendous opportunity. Grocers willing to adapt their operations to that of the bigger players can see a gradual impact on their profits.
Here are some important methods that grocers can use to capture a larger market share, with greater efficiency and satisfied customers:
Strengthen customer relationships by focusing on customer service
Almost every customer values good customer service, hence it becomes imperative that the grocery stores live up to customer expectations. Small developments in the manner in which grocers deliver and engage with their customers can provide significant results.
It is important for grocers to provide complete visibility into their orders at all times, meaning that customers can track the delivery from the beginning to the end. Here, customers may be able to make specific results as well as the ability to rate drivers after the products have been dropped off. With fulfillment increasingly becoming an important aspect of customer experience, features such as this become a necessity.
Leverage brick and mortar setups
Grocers’ physical stores are the biggest advantage over a giant like Amazon, which still does not have a significant brick-and-mortar presence. This can be seen especially for deliveries that require faster turnarounds.
Even though the larger retail giants have more capital to invest and have a significant amount of experience in the e-commerce field than most grocers, it is still tough to compete with a store that is located near the customer’s home. A physical footprint also aids the grocers to offer their customers options such as in-store pickup or curtsied pick up.
Scale operations by digitizing the supply chain
Many grocers still use outdated technology for their operations, however, if they want to effectively scale and manage their supply chain, they require a scalable solution that provides a true status on demand. This especially holds true if the grocers are dealing with high delivery volumes.
Grocers are gradually investing in automation to expedite fulfillments and deliveries. This, in turn, will also enable an increase in profit margins over 5% which is a great margin as the grocery sector has smaller margins and higher volumes.
As with any disruption, bigger players like Amazon’s entrance into the grocery market brings with it not only a threat but a great opportunity as well. Those that act quickly to implement the latest technologies and strategies both in their stores and throughout their delivery ecosystem will likely find themselves on the path to becoming market leaders and customer favorites.