The landscape of grocery fulfillment has changed greatly, and there are certain advantages and disadvantages to online grocery shopping. We live in a world where you can order a car service at the touch of a screen, have various everyday tasks and errands completed for you by a stranger, and now, you can grocery shop using an app, and have your groceries packaged and delivered, saving you a trip to the store.
With the ‘appification’ of many websites and services over the past few years, a traditional trip to the grocery is no exception in the changing atmosphere of user integration. Creating a cohesive app experience for the customer has become an integral feature of using the Internet today. At your fingertips is a wide array of options in completing your everyday tasks—and helpful interfaces you can use to get things done. Whether you’re looking for a pickup truck and assistance with moving, or using an app to practice meditation, we have plenty of ways to ‘hack’ life—and make daily living a little easier. Of course, you’re also able to browse the grocery store for your items whenever you want—whether it’s 2:00 AM or 5:00 PM. Take your time to do the grocery shopping outside of typical store hours.
Ever had the experience of going to the store for 2 or 3 items, and leaving with 10? Many find a trip to the grocery store to be a tempting experience, especially if you’re trying to save money or commit to a diet. But if you’ve decided to go to the online grocery shopping route, you’ll be able to pick up your groceries from the store without the experience of wandering around grocery aisles. This should reduce your spending, and help you purchase what’s on your grocery list, and nothing more. On the other hand, you may wish to purchase your grocery items in bulk—another way to save money. Maybe there’s a product that isn’t often stocked, and you need to order it ahead of time. Rather than traveling to the store to discover that it isn’t there or there isn’t enough product, you can simply order the item(s) through the app and wait until it’s ready.
Depending on what you choose, there’s more or less work for you to do when it comes to eGrocery. Here’s a few of the different types of eGrocery services.
- Pre-bagged pickup: Your groceries are picked out at the store, bagged, and ready to go when you come in to pick them up.
- Bagged and delivered: Your groceries are put together in-store, bagged, and delivered to your doorstep. This way, you can avoid lines and a drive to the store.
- Subscription service: Your groceries are selected for you each month based on personal preferences. This eliminates the need to search out the groceries you want, and saves you some time and planning—you can put together meals based on the ingredients you purchase, rather than deciding what to eat first.
Here’s a few different grocery store apps that you can choose to help you out with your groceries:
- Shipt: Shipt is a grocery app with a “local community of reliable shoppers,” who are there to pick out perfect produce, and work with 40,000 different grocery items. No need to worry about picking out the best looking apple from the bunch—someone else can do it for you.
- Taskrabbit: This is an app designed to help you out with general errands, not just groceries. If you need someone to pick up your dry cleaning and groceries, it’ll be done for you.
- Instacart: Another general grocery app with a team of shoppers in your area. Your first delivery is free, and if you sign up for an Instacart Express membership, your deliveries will be free on orders over $35.
- Freshdirect: If you’re concerned about organic produce, or want to know where your meat is coming from, Freshdirect might be the app for you—as their name implies, they’re concerned about how fresh and healthy your food is.
As providers of complete third-party logistics services, Evans Distribution Systems enjoys a front row seat as the landscape of logistics and fulfillment services changes. Not only are we privileged to watch this evolution, we have the pleasure of supporting our customers as they develop new systems and processes, in order to respond to the changing expectations of consumers. Contact us or learn more here about our eCommerce and direct-to-consumer fulfillment services.