Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

I remember my mother sitting on the living room floor on Sundays, spread out with the weekly circular in front of her, planning our family’s shopping list for the week.

“Woo hoo! Another deal! Special K–two for one this week!” she’d announce gloriously, while clipping out the coupon and adding it to the collection she carried around in a tattered envelope in her purse. “Woo hoo! Fifty cents off Quilted Northern!”

Flash forward 25 years, and here I am doing the very same thing…on my iPhone.

Yesterday, MyWebGrocer and ShopRite launched the very first weekly specials iPhone App. We’re all very excited about it here at MWG because it’s a product we all believe in and use personally.

Click on image below view a video demo of the App

The App is the latest incarnation of MyWebGrocer’s efforts to make ShopRite’s customers’ lives easier. It functions as a portable circular and invites consumers to “start saving” before they even arrive at the store by browsing hundreds of items instantly. Among its many groundbreaking features, ShopRite Weekly Specials enables consumers to see what’s on sale in real time at their regular ShopRite store. Once they select an item, it literally tumbles into their shopping list, which is neatly organized by category with pictures, descriptions and real time prices. The App syncs and downloads store specials directly to an iPhone or iPod Touch and can even sync with customers’ shopping lists at ShopRite.com.

At the gym this morning, while plugging along on an excercise bike, I put together a dinner menu for tomorrow night based on the current sale items at ShopRite . I planned the meal around what’s on sale, and I was able to stay within budget my because the App gave me a running total of my basket price. When I got to the office, I printed out a paper copy of my list, and I will stop at the store tonight and pick up my groceries after work. I saved myself time and money, all while burning calories on the bike! I felt so good I added a box of chololate cookies to my shopping list…hey! I’d earned it!

Our App doesn’t try to be “all things to all people…” and I like that. This App focuses on what I want to know: what’s on sale at my local store. It’s simple and efficient and it gets the job done.

Twenty-five years later, I am “clipping coupons” just like mom. As I click around on my iPhone, I can understand the excitement she felt there on the living room floor clipping for “deals.” And I’m doing it from the gym…bonus.

So I might as well just say it: I am turning into my mother. Woo-hoo!

-Alison

Those are the words that came out of my husband’s mouth on the first day of our recent family vacation. We were on a very long car ride from Vermont to Long Beach Island, New Jersey. The beach commute started on Friday evening and did not end until about 5PM on Saturday. When we arrived at our beach house, our shopping for the week was done.  How did we do it? Online Grocery Shopping!

At around 1PM on Saturday, we jumped off the Garden State Parkway, (Exit 135, to be exact) made a right into the Clark ShopRite parking lot and pulled into our own “Rock Star” parking spot reserved just for OGS shoppers. If I had a stop watch, I estimate the whole shopping experience was less than ten minutes (including the wrong turn out of the parking lot). We jumped back into the bumper-to-bumper traffic to the Shore. For the next hour all we could do is talk about how amazing it was that our grocery shopping was already done.

I doubted my personal shopper; even after she called me to substitute one whole wheat hotdog rolls for another brand, I still doubted her. As we unpacked the groceries, I panicked, “Where are the PINE NUTS? I need the PINE NUTS for the salad! I can’t believe they are not here!” Don’t panic my husband told me, they must be here somewhere. No, they were not. I searched through all the bags and there were no nuts. Perhaps, I should check the receipt…no nuts there. Perhaps, I should check my order…oh; I forgot to order the nuts. I didn’t need to doubt my personal shopper, I needed to doubt myself.

After we unpacked our bags and groceries from the car, we headed down to the beach with our kids to enjoy the afternoon surf. Meanwhile, my sister-in-law was running out to the store for her groceries. My husband and I chuckled. She asked me if I needed anything, to which I replied, “just pine nuts!” Two hours later she returned, somewhat drained from her trip, with about eight bags of groceries and my one jar of pine nuts. We were back from the beach by then.  I thanked her for my pine nuts.

My vacation ended when, on the car ride home, my husband reminded me that there was no food in the fridge at home. We decided to avoid the grocery store that night by going out for dinner. But while we are in the car, perhaps now would be a good time to put a list together. List together? I already did that! It is saved to my profile. Can’t I just press a button, place my order and pick up my groceries? If I had OGS in Vermont, the answer would be “YES!” But for now, my vacation is truly over. I think I will wait until tomorrow to go to the store.

MyWebGrocer Introduces Order Express

MyWebGrocer has developed an even more convenient way for online grocery customers to do their online shopping: Order Express. This time saving email technology will save retail grocer’s online grocery shoppers time and money.

After an allotted time period from the customer’s last online purchase, an email goes to them showing what they previously purchased and gives them the option to purchase some or all of the items again and the capability to add more items and special notes. A single click from their personalized email sends their order to the store. Online grocery shopping just became more convenient.

ShopRite was one of the first to launch this Order Express system. Within the first five days of the launch, ShopRite saw over 500 immediate responses to the offer. “At ShopRite, we are always looking for ways to make shopping with us more convenient,” said Joe Colalillo, Chairman and CEO at Wakefern Food Corp., the distribution and merchandising arm of ShopRite supermarkets. “Using e-mail to place your order is certainly another step in achieving that goal.”

“Small, simple steps that help drive more business for the retailer’s online channel are sometimes as beneficial as the larger advancements,” explains Curt Alpeter Senior Vice President of Sales for MyWebGrocer. “This new tool clearly makes a difference for the consumer and the retailer”.

In a recent survey conducted by Exact Target “nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said they had made a purchase because of a marketing message received through e-mail”. Consumers in our market today prefer email. Order Express enables retail grocers to target their customers directly by offering them products that they know they enjoy. Doing this on an individual level increases a client’s customer retention base because it is offering their customer’s personalized convenience.

NBC 10 Lori Takes on Your Job!

Check out this video of the news broadcast where reporter Lori Delgado takes on Gayle Boag’s job as a personal shopper at the ShopRite of Synder!

Gayle passes on her personal online grocery shopping knowledge onto Lori. Lori must then fulfill the orders coming in from ShopRite’s online shopping application powered by MyWebGrocer.

Video:(c) 2007, WCAU. All rights reserved.

Cheers!
Courtney

Gayle Boag of ShopRite will be challenging reporter Lori Delgado of NBC news to do her job for a day. Lori Delgado will have to tackle Gayle’s job in the ShopRite from Home program of the Snyder Plaza ShopRite.

Be sure to tune in on Thursday July 24th at 5:45 am and again at 6:45 am. If you miss that broadcast check it out Saturday July 26th at 9:00 am.

For those of you who are outside the broadcast area (Greater Philadelphia, Lehigh Valley, South Jersey, and Delaware) it will be posted on the web at NBC 10. From there, click on “Lori, Terry Tackle Viewers’ Jobs” tab after the Thursday broadcast!

Cheers!
Courtney