Standing in-line is not the most pleasant experience. It’s usually crowded, and there’s always seems to be a person in front of you with a mound of groceries. Half of the time,  most people don’t want to even go to the supermarket. There’s a solution to the grocery store blues, online grocery shopping. Online shopping is convenient and fast, and overall shopping for groceries online can be a good experience. Your family won’t starve if you don’t go to the grocery store, because online food shopping is here to help.

Online grocery shopping is not a new concept. It’s actually been around since the early 1990s. Companies like WebVan, and Peapod were the first e-commerce grocery stores. Both companies offered service in San Francisco, CA. Safeway is another early pioneer of online food shopping, but unlike the other two, Safeway is an online supermarket club. WebVan once offered food, plus DVDs, CDs, video games, books, and Toshiba computers. Which seems fantastic, but WebVan is no longer available. Although, they all provided prompt, courteous, and accommodating service, only two survived. Safeway, and Peapod are both thriving e-commerce stores, but they have new competition, like FreshDirect.

Although web stores cannot offer the exact experience of shopping in a brick-and-mortar grocery store, it can offer convenience and often times lower prices. Shoppers won’t be able to cruise the aisles, but items are available by category, such as dairy products, meat, and canned goods. Usually, items are displayed in small to medium size, so it’s hard to gauge the actual size. If you know the specific item you want, then just type it in the find window. For example, if you’re shopping for “Ragu Spaghetti Sauce,” then just type it in, and it should come up. It’s simpler than tracking down a supermarket employee for help. However, on many sites, it’s hard to tell what’s in stock, but most sites have a “notes” section, so shoppers can provide substitution notes for unavailable items. Online grocers also allow shoppers to build shopping lists to keep track of regularly needed items. An online shopping cart can be saved, and easily accessed the next time you use the service.

Online grocers offer prompt delivery service. Online grocery deliveries have to be scheduled a day in advance, but they’re always on time. Some companies also offer shoppers the opportunity to place an order a week in advance. If an item is missing, or a perishable item is past its expiration date, then the delivery person will fix your problem. The grocers are also accommodating for the elderly, and handicapped. Ordering is simple; you just pay by credit card online. There’s no need to worry about identity theft; most of the sites use “SSL encryption” to protect your credit card information. You may also pay by phone, and services like Peapod will let you pay by check. Also, the service Simon Delivers allows customers to order groceries using their BlackBerry.

For the “brick-and-mortar” grocery stores, online shopping gives more intimate knowledge of their shoppers wants and needs, and shopping behavior. The service FreshDirect has unique merchandising features such as prepared meals, and organic foods, which allows it to compete with Whole Foods like companies. FreshDirect also focuses on fresh products at a price advantage. Many “brick-and-mortar” grocery stores have begun offering online services to keep up with the competition. The Kroegers Co. has a trial retail e-commerce in Denver and Alaska. The Roche Bros. in Boston have begun offering online services to keep up with Peapod, and D’Agostino’s, and A&P in New York are now offering the online service, because they’re trying to keep up FreshDirect.

Online food shopping is growing and, expanding every day. Today, the average web-based buyer basket is $150. Online grocery sells should reach 6.2 billion this year, which is a 17 percent increase from 2005. According to Cambridge-Massachusetts, Forrester Research, sales should top 200 billion, thanks to the growing trend of retailers offering online services. However, Ross Gillanders, an e-business consultant for Buy4Now, says the actual figure is closer to 1.5 billion. In any case the e-commerce grocery store is expanding.

 Amazon.com has added food to its product criteria, but Amazon isn’t selling perishable items. The United Kingdom’s Tesco will break through to US retailing next year. Also, MyWebGrocer, the US’s largest provider of online shopping solutions, has 50 regional grocers, including Winston-Salem, NC’s Lowes foods, Supervalu, and Elizabeth, NJ’s Wakefern Food Corp. There are ample store, which all offer the same convenience, and better support than regular grocers.

 

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