Changing Paradigms Of Grocery Shopping Among Shoppers

The year of pandemic has been the year of eCommerce platforms as we all have witnessed the drastic growth pattern in few sectors of the online retail industry, the business of grocery delivery being one of them. What remained a common practice only for an elite section of the society for years, online grocery shopping became one of the most sought after activities on the internet.

 The trend remained a necessity during the pandemic years, but gradually became a habitual approach, the fondness and preference of consumers have led the retailers, brands and manufacturers to modify their approach of doing business and come up with reforms and policies so as to serve the growing online demands of the customers.

The development story of grocery home delivery platforms:

Before the advent of covid – 19 pandemic, online grocery shopping was done mostly by the working professionals in major cities, that too mainly during the post working hours. Some of them even depended only on their trusted vendors for timely delivery of groceries and other household items. However, it was from March 2020 when countries went into total lockdown phase, industry giants of eCommerce took the leap of faith and started focusing more towards online grocery delivery business. At the same time regional players like barakat too, rose to the challenge in their respective countries.

They increased manpower to suffice for ever-increasing demand of delivery partners, the store hours were adjusted to allow fulfillment of maximum number of orders, etc. This was the time when these industries leveraged the most and eventually in a period of a year the business marked a turnover which would otherwise have taken some years to achieve. Since then, there has been no looking back and online grocery shopping remains to be the new normal.

Reasons for the widespread acceptance of online shopping format among the consumers:

• Ease of delivery and payment services: The USP of online grocery delivery lies in the doorstep and contactless delivery of grocery and other essential items in a qualitative and hygienic manner. Also the payment option is designed to suit the digital ecosystem, for the people who struggle to manage time for offline shopping of these things, delivery companies are their helping hands in keeping the household management wheel spinning.

• The agri-tech apps are going out of the way to procure the fresh produce of fruits, healthy juice and vegetables directly from the farm, thereby keeping up the promise of delivering fresh quality. Moreover schemes and offers are introduced regularly to attract more and more customers.

• These grocery app delivery services are not just delivering products at the doorstep, but they are also developing a trust factor with their consumers because they are leaving no stone unturned in implementing user-centric business practices. From selecting a suitable delivery slot, collection of return or exchange packets, refund on cancellation, cashback on purchase and there are many other convenient options available which the customers might not receive in a traditional shopping format.

However, there are some key factors that these companies should consider for further enhancing the bottom line of their business.

• Consumers are now well versed in their approach of online shopping, unique advertising strategies and marketing guidelines should be adopted to convince more consumers.
• Although industry giants have a strong foothold in the market, new brands can also build rapport with consumers by providing hassle-free and reliable shopping experience from start to finish.