The Return of the Grocery Van

As many of you may know, I’m a great advocate of multi-channel shopping solutions.  In my mind we will (indeed many of us already have) found that purchases across the different shopping categories will be divided across all the current channels (Supermarkets, Convenience, Discounters & Online – both standard and non-standard retailers) in a way that relates to the characteristic of each category to the shopper.

Let me lay down some examples;

 Products                                              Typical Frequency               Ideal Channel

Milk & Bread                                       Daily                                      Convenience

Health & Beauty                                 Monthly                                Supermarket (or indeed High Street)
Biscuits & Cereals                               Bi-weekly (Light)                 Discounters
Soft Drinks & Tinned                          Bi-weekly (Heavy)               Online Grocers
Washing Powder & Toilet Roll         Quarterly (Volume)             Online Non-Grocers (Amazon)

Of course these are meant to demonstrate indicative differences, and any can be bought from any channel, but you may take my point that shopping across the channels is so much more convenient, depending upon the category.  Indeed overall convenience in all its guises is very much in the minds of the shopper nowadays, and they are willing to pay a premium (sometimes small but a premium all the same) for this convenience.

There is of course one important category that I have not mentioned (indeed there are a few, but I want to focus on one in particular!), and that is Fresh Fruit & Vegetables, where does that fit?

Well it is more akin in frequency of Milk and Bread, but the selection in the convenience channel is generally poor, discounters are improving their offering in this regard but that is not convenient for most, and doing smaller top-ups in the supermarket channel can be time consuming.  Further, the online channel can never perform well in this category as shoppers mistrust of a third party selecting the best produce is a key barrier…so what about the humble grocery van?

This isn’t as daft as it sounds…think about it, it has lots of advantages that other channels don’t.

It’s the ultimate in Convenience as the van comes to you.

Shoppers can ensure Quality by handling and selecting their own produce.

It’s Green as is stops those short car journeys to the nearest store.

It promotes Healthy eating by making fresh produce even more accessible.

It therefore completes the full repertoire of shopper requirements amongst the available channels moving forward!  Who would have said 10 years ago that their main store was the local petrol station!

Things have changed, and will continue to change as shoppers move away from the large weekly shop to a more demand based model, where they know the consumption occasions of all their purchases.  Additionally where there is constant demand for certain products or brands on an on-going consumption basis, stocking up via online retailers (whether specialist or non-specialist grocers) will continue to grow.

…so I’m just off to my local van dealership to get mine kitted out, are you?