Due to the COVID-19 situation, as the customers are not in a position to spend much time in grocery stores, grocery ecommerce websites came into demand.
Grocery ecommerce websites help shoppers to buy products easily online. Customers can make purchases most conveniently from their home without visiting the grocery store. It will be much easier to find the availability of the product they are looking for through these grocery e-commerce websites. Customers can make hassle-free payments and get the groceries delivered to their doorstep.
What customers expect to see on your grocery ecommerce website
Inorder to satisfy the expectations of customers who shop online, retailers need to follow five key features to offer ultimate online shopping experience.
Simple search of grocery products
Most of the e-commerce websites are not successful as the customers can’t find the product they are looking for. For any customer who wants to buy groceries online, the first important thing is that the shopper should be able to find the grocery product they are looking for easily through the given search filters. The success of any ecommerce website lies in making customers find the products they want easily and efficiently.
There are three kinds of search features through which the customers can find the product of their choice.
- Auto-complete searches
- Category-wise search
- Add-to-cart option from search results page.
Along with the accurate product data and impressive product imagery, personalization—the ability to offer the shopping experience to every customer is another success factor.
Accurate online and in-store product information
Customers always look for accurate product availability in real-time. Especially in times of crisis, with more online orders, high-demand for certain categories of products and disturbance in the supply chain. Customers should know what they can purchase online and in-store. When shopping online, customers should get assurance that most of the items which they ordered will be delivered without any delay. Price of the products and promotions need to be consistent online and in-store, if not the customer may lose trust. This can be applicable to everything, from regular pricing to special offers and deals available exclusively to loyalty customers.
Easy add to cart
Customers can easily make their further purchases online by adding a product list to the cart. For this purpose, customers often use a mobile app to “add a list of shopping items directly to cart” with a single click. This helps to convert the offline customers to shop online, increasing sales and conversion rate. As there are more customers buying products online, this feature benefits online customers who purchase products on a daily basis. By using this feature, customers can quickly build their basket online saving time. Grocery shop owners can use shopping list data to know about the conversions, buyer intent, shopper personas and more.
Hassle Free checkout
According to the research the best in class retailers convert more than 75% of online customers who start a cart, whereas normal retailers convert just over 50%. One of the important reasons customers who make online shopping abandon their online purchases is because the checkout process is too complicated. Abandoned carts are a clear sign that the process of ordering is broken.
So the retailers must make the online payment process hassle-free, so that more customers will be interested to buy products online. As a retailer, your job is to get customers through the payment process as quickly and as painlessly as possible. One-page checkout is a surefire way to streamline the path to purchase. The functionalities and features for a frictionless checkout experience:
- Must enable online ordering across fresh food and prepared meals
- Must have ability to use reorder lists.
- Allow multiple payment options such as gift cards, discounts, coupons, special offers and loyalty points.
- Delivery options: BOPIS (click-and-collect) and home delivery on a given date and time.
Pickup from store
As customers shopping online is increasing day by day, everyone expects to do online shopping easily and conveniently. Click-and-collect services in which any products that are ordered online so that products can be collected at the store or other location have become more popular mainly for buying groceries. Click-and-collect has gained much popularity in online shopping, which increased 18% of all grocery sales 2016 to 48% in 2018. These numbers suggest that online shoppers are seeking greater levels of convenience, and comfort over the shopping experience. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, customers are looking for retailers who offer services that protect their health. Grocery shop owners have started offering contactless pickup, where customers pay online and get their groceries delivered.
Free home delivery
Delivery services are in high-demand for customers who want to stay home and purchase groceries online. This helps for those who are in home quarantine. Many grocery store owners have invested in offering contactless deliveries at the doorsteps as a safety measure to protect employees and customers. Grocery store owners who own the entire shopping experience, from grocery store to door, are best equipped to meet their customers needs. Grocery store owners can promote their brand and the loyalty of their customers.
Conclusion
It is very essential for grocery store owners to have an ecommerce website for their business as they can reach a huge customer base and promote their brand. Especially during this Coronavirus pandemic, customers are showing interest in buying all their groceries online. Nextbrain Technologies is the top mobile and web app development company in Canada which offers customized and scalable grocery ecommerce websites for your business growth.
