The grocery industry has witnessed a shift towards online shopping, a trend accelerated by the global COVID-19 pandemic. As consumers adapted to restrictions, many discovered the convenience of purchasing their groceries online, and this behavior has persisted even as the world has gradually reopened. Since then, the convenience of online grocery shopping has become appealing, especially to people with very busy schedules. And this trend is expected to grow. A survey conducted by PwC predicts that by 2050, the market share of online grocery shopping could soar to between 35 and 50 % in major European markets such as Germany, France, UK, Turkey, and the Netherlands.

Consumer Preferences in Online Grocery Shopping

• Maintaining Quality: Retailers must find solutions that meet consumers’ demands in terms of product quality and freshness.
• Purchasing Flexibility: Customers want to decide individually and flexibly how they shop. Sometimes they want to be supplied quickly, sometimes at fixed times, sometimes they want to pick up the ordered goods themselves, or they want to shop in the traditional way at a brick-and-mortar store.
• Transparent Pricing: Customers appreciate transparent prices so they can make an informed buying decision.
• Accurate Stock Visibilty: Customers want to receive exactly what they have ordered. Substitute items should be an exception.

By 2050, the market share of online grocery shopping could soar to between 35 and 50 % in major European markets such as Germany, France, UK, Turkey, and the Netherlands.

PwC

Challenges for Omnichannel Retail in Grocery

As grocery retailers include online sales in their business, they face a variety of challenges that must be addressed to ensure the success of their digital platforms. With the right technology, like a powerful Order Management System (OMS), retailers can overcome these challenges.

Show availability reliably

One of the most crucial aspects for a successful omnichannel business is ensuring inventory accuracy and visibility. Grocery retailers must accurately display product data and availability to customers, considering regional variations in assortments. Customers need real-time information about product availability at their specific delivery address to make informed purchasing decisions. For this, anticipating future stock levels is crucial. Retailers must balance current inventory with projected stock to ensure fulfillment of orders without disappointment, maintaining customer trust and satisfaction. This is also important to enable time slot delivery options to allow customers to choose convenient delivery windows that align with their schedules.

An Inventory Management assures that retailers always have full transparency about their stock across all locations. On this basis, retailers can inform their customers in the online shop and during checkout about all necessary information through a powerful Distributed Order Management System. AI-driven algorithms can help with solving the complexities that come along with anticipation of future stock and calculating availability within a short period of time. This way, retailers avoid cancellations, uplift the conversion rate and enhance customer satisfaction.

Ensure continuous cold chains

Managing sensitive goods such as cooled and frozen items demands stringent safety processes. Labelling and packaging must adhere to product-specific instructions to maintain integrity. Furthermore, enabling a continuous cooling or freezer chain ensures these goods remain at optimal temperatures from warehouse to doorstep, safeguarding quality and customer trust. Usually, only local fulfillment facilities can be considered for eCommerce with fresh articles. Thus, the routing of orders to the most adequate facility must also be considered.

Simplify picking & packing by leveraging AI

The process of picking and packing food items comes with its own set of challenges. For instance, specific regulations prohibit the packing of cleaning products alongside food items, and require careful placement to avoid damage, such as preventing heavy items from crushing delicate products like fruits or bread. Leveraging AI can revolutionize this process by implementing dynamic picking strategies that account for these restrictions while calculating the most efficient routes based on storage locations. AI-driven algorithms can optimize the sequence and method of item retrieval, ensuring compliance with regulations and enhancing operational efficiency.

For shopping carts containing a multitude of items, providing all necessary information for efficient order fulfillment is essential. Implementing Multi Order Pick (collecting items for multiple customer orders within a single trip through the facility) or Zone Pick (different sections of a facility are assigned to specific employees) functionalities can significantly enhance the picking process for complex carts. These systems need to integrate with various warehouse coordination systems to support different logistical requirements, ensuring smooth operations across all inventory levels.

Conclusion: Overcome the Obstacles of Online Grocery

The above-mentioned challenges are only some examples among other aspects. If grocers can solve these, they will benefit in many ways from an online strategy in addition to their brick-and-mortar presence:

• Increase demand: Connecting online & offline channels enables retailers to reach more customers
• Boost sales: Omnichannel customers shop more frequently and spend more per purchase
• Increase customer satisfaction: Customers are served individually, according to their preferences
• Strengthen loyalty: Omnichannel customers are less likely to shop at competitors

Technological Solutions for Grocery Retail

With the help of the right technology, grocery retailers can tackle their industry specific challenges, make their processes more efficient, meet customer expectations and increase sales.

At fulfillmenttools, we provide special processes and tech expertise in eFood thanks to our REWE origins. As the German eFood market leader, REWE has perfected its fulfillment processes. Therefore, as a team with eFood DNA, we understand the most complex fulfillment environment better than anyone else: We know the industry-specific regulations and challenges and can support retailers in the best possible way to perfect fulfillment. Our modular and scalable software architecture empowers retailers to quickly launch their order management project, leverage only the parts of the solution that they really need and grow their applications as their business expands. We offer best-of-breed architecture that is easy to implement, involves fewer risks and offers transparent prices.