It is a cliché to say that the coronavirus will have a long-lasting critical impact on all business and more specifically on the grocery retail.
Limited access to the stores and long waiting delivery time for online orders were some of the main consequences of the crisis. The overall time for shopping was increased by the waiting time out of the store.
These are effects prone to slowly disappear, however epidemics and pandemics are likely to reappear from time to time. Therefore, the world should learn to deal more efficiently with pandemics. One of the ways to cope with pandemic is to make sure that the grocery retail fulfills its critical commitment i.e. to ensure that all households get enough food when it is needed.
Implementing Manage My Grocery ensures that the chains know what in the customer shopping list and can prepare it in advance. This will help the chain to take care of its stock at any level: national, regional, and down to the stores.
Surveys show that a certain percentage of customers will leave online shopping and come back to the stores. Thus, the possibility to have the basket (half) ready before their visit is a strong benefit for shoppers willing to spend as less time a possible before entering and inside the store. These surveys also show that in face of a decrease in their income some customers will shift more shopping to instore as instore is often perceived as cheaper than online.
For aged people it means that in a crisis period a basket based on their regular shopping list can be prepared and delivered with no intervention.
Even after normal life resumes it is likely that some customers will try to shorten their visit to the store.
Delivery time required for home delivery or for having the “click and collect” ready can be dramatically shortened.
A wide implementation of Manage My Grocery could have avoided empty shelves and customers’ panics. If customers know that the chain knows their shopping list and take care of it, rush and panic buying can be avoided.
In addition, the customer can mark part of his home inventory as home emergency items and as such, the chain could take care of it differently.
Grocery retail is one of the fields less affected by the crisis. There is now a challenge for this industry to keep the momentum.