Images RetailME

Doorstep delivery

-

Online grocery shopping is an area that has recorded a massive surge over the last few months since COVID-19 outbreak. Across the region, several players have reported a significan­t surge in online orders. Cases to note are Carrefour with 300% year-on-year rise and Danube’s daily sales were up over 200% towards March-end.

The big question is whether grocery retailers are prepared to ensure timely order fulfilment.

Customer buying behaviour has changed, Latour confirmed.

“We have seen a significan­t number of our customers purchasing online. We have seen our online orders increase almost 400-500% monthon-month. Alongside letting our customers order via WhatsApp and phone, we work with El Grocer and InstaShop to facilitate free doorstep delivery. So, we are well-prepared while adapting to changes quickly.”

“We have a wonderful team who have been working hard with all of our local suppliers, makers and bakers to adapt to the new online demand and shift in buying behaviour. Planning and forecastin­g have been important and to minimise waste and meet consumer demands. We have also implemente­d a pre-order for items so we can ensure requiremen­ts are met,” Balderston­e responded.

“We aligned fulfilment with our platform providers and suppliers.

Our in-store staff is trained in multitaski­ng, whereby 75% of all employees can now operate across the store, whether it be picking orders, operating the checkouts or replenishi­ng the shelves. It was something we identified during our Business Continuity Planning (BCP) meeting in early February, and we knew we needed to scale up our capability quickly,”

Lack shared.

Adding further BinDawood said, “We have taken several extra measures, including strengthen­ing our online teams and scaling our online business. It has been a challenge in the pandemic. Still, we have hired staff from businesses that have been affected by the pandemic, increasing our workforce this way, to cope with the increase in demand for our online services across Danube Online and the BinDawood App. We have increased our online presence significan­tly in the past month, from 13 stores online to 31,” BinDawood shared.

“We don’t see any issues in doing deliveries,” Vachani added. “All our supermarke­ts are open 24 hours – this was the case even before the crisis – and we are well-geared for doorstep deliveries. Almost 40 years ago, we were among the first supermarke­ts in the UAE to start home deliveries, and this has only improved over the years.”

 ??  ?? Mark Lack
Mark Lack

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Arab Emirates