Kai Clarke

Building an Effective Supermarket Retail Website

February 16, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
A report out by Bill Bishop, chairman of Willard Bishop, aims to decipher what supermarket websites need to do to best communicate with shoppers. The report is based on multiple visits to websites of eight retailers.... How well do you think supermarket websites engage shoppers?      [more...]

Online grocery shopping is a concept which is not ready for prime-time, and may never be. So is the website that drives this. The public does not go online to purchase most food goods, since there are tremendous obstacles to overcome with delivery and customer satisfaction of the chosen product. Add to this the increased costs involved (in a low-margin retail environment) and it is clearly a minefield for disaster. Customers prefer to purchase their steaks, bananas and ice cream in-person. Plus, grocers prefer to sell these items in-person.

Add to this list the inability to retain the sales and profits of impulse items (which are large contributors to the bottom line of many grocers) and the online grocer (and website) is just not ready for prime time.

Keep the website focused on education, community information and use a retailer's limited resources to better eliminate OOS and you have a better usage of grocer's resources.