Room for E-Commerce Improvement
As grocery e-commerce surged throughout 2020, Americans reaffirmed a preference for curbside pickup over delivery. Households tend to favor grocery pickup because it costs less than delivery and, in theory, they have more control over when their order is received.
However, satisfaction with pickup has lagged delivery in two key areas that affect the overall shopping experience: selecting a time slot and receiving the order. Food retailers have an opportunity to improve both this year.
SELECTING A TIME SLOT
Pickup satisfaction scores related to selecting a preferred time slot lag delivery by 10 percentage points when comparing the share of very/extremely satisfied customers, according to research that Brick Meets Click conducted with Toronto-based Mercatus last November.
The culprit is a lack of capacity to meet the elevated shopper demand for pickup. While that’s understandable given the onslaught of online order volume that grocers experienced as the pandemic set in, the reality remains that retailers own this opportunity, as third-party providers have adapted more quickly to meet the growing demand for delivery.
