Published on May 20, 2010 Online Grocery Stores: Give your customers a fair go!
Supermarket shopping has gone online in Australia and customers are taking it up enthusiastically. After all, online grocery stores are very convenient way to shop. If you can’t find something on the shelf, they can and it’s delivered to your door in a time window that suits you.
We’ve tried out the online shopping experience of the major chain’s service and fed back to both of them about our thoughts on the things they did right and ways they could improve. Overall, we were generally very satisfied by the level of service and quality of the items received compared to what you would get in the store if you picked them out yourself. What we are not happy about is the way prices are disclosed when compared to the same items in their own shops.
A report that aired on TV on Today Tonight this evening observed the same as we have done in our own shopping experiences: given many different baskets of goods, in many cases if you pick it from the shelves yourself it’s cheaper. (NB: We feel that Today Tonight weren’t totally fair in their report as overpricing compared to their shops is not the case for all products – there are examples of items that are cheaper).
When approached by Today Tonight, spokespeople from the relevant grocery chains defended their approach by stating that there is a premium attached to many online prices because of the extra convenience factor.
What’s going on here?
Shopping cart functionality limitations?
One thing we’ve noticed is that when the grocery chains are doing 2 for 1 deals that these are the items that seem to us to not be replicated in their online store sales. Could this type of discrepancy be a limitation in their cart functionality rather than a business decision to charge a premium for convenience? We don’t know but it’s something to think about..
Transparency in pricing is required
Whatever the case with respect to their shopping cart functionality, we have no absolutely objection to customers receiving goods via the online shopping service at a premium but believe that this additional premium should be separated out and charged as a separate line item. How else can online shoppers compare prices and know that the store is being honest? How do they know the premium is being applied equally across the different products? Do the grocery chains expect everyone to go to the stores to compare the prices online to in the shop?
Shoppers already pay a delivery fee which presumably includes a margin of some kind, so are online shoppers being stung twice for the privilege of shopping online? Customers will pay the same amount under a transparent or the current model so what’s the problem for the shops – it’s just disclosed more fairly.
It’s in everyone’s interests for the growth seen in online shopping to continue and the local supermarket will never be obsolete. But if a lot of people are shopping online, car parks will be less crowded, people will find what they want more often and everyone will be better off. So c’mon Woolworths and Coles, split out your premiums and let people compare your online prices to the store ones. Aussies deserve a fair go!
No Comments