Grocers need these 8 fulfillment capabilities
By Keith Menezes, Director, Business Development and Marketing
Jun. 8, 2023 | 3 Min. Read | Blog
Grocers are finally seeing the same shifts in consumer shopping behavior that have happened to other retail categories. Consumers want the same convenient shopping experiences they expect from other retailers like online shopping, pickup and delivery. Meeting these expectations and executing on these experiences requires that grocers have a wide range of fulfillment capabilities.
As the growth of online grocery orders are continuing to gain popularity so is in-store and curbside pickup; in fact, 75% of customers1 indicated that click and collect is their preferred method for grocery retrieval. But fulfilling grocery orders is unique in comparison to other Buy Online and Pickup in Store (BOPIS) orders.
For starters, the number of items per order is higher in the grocery space with an average grocery order having 30 items per basket.2 Because of volume and slim margins, grocers must focus ruthlessly on improving fulfillment efficiency.
Here are the top eight fulfillment capabilities that are critical for improving fulfillment efficiency:
Capability |
Benefit |
|
| 1 | Multi-order / department picking | Enable employees to increase picking speeds while picking multiple orders at the same time with one employee |
| 2 | Optimized pick path | Auto generated pick paths route employees to pick efficiently with guidance on which items to pick next based on store layout and inventory location |
| 3 | Substitutions | Allow employees to substitute items that are in-stock based on their judgement, the business rules you have set, or based on purchases that your customers have made in the past |
| 4 | Weighted items | Provide functionality to confirm the weight of items that have been ordered (e.g. produce, nuts, etc.) |
| 5 | Temperature controlled staging | Guide employees to stage different parts of an order in various temperature-controlled environments to ensure freshness at handoff and checkout |
| 6 | Freshness check | Prompt employees to verify expiration dates on perishable items to meet customer satisfaction |
| 7 | Age restrictions | Alert employees to verify customer identification for age restricted items like alcohol and cigarettes |
| 8 | Real-time reporting | Reporting dashboards that give managers and employees insights into actionable data, performance metrics, custom reporting capabilities and employee leaderboards |
In short, customers today expect convenience, and convenience inherently creates complexity. That’s where Walmart Commerce Technologies comes in.
At Walmart Commerce Technologies, our team understands the need to efficiently scale for operations that process high-volume grocery orders. Store Assist not only empowers grocers to tackle these unique fulfillment capabilities, but also drives employee efficiency, optimizes picking accuracy, and helps increase already tight margins.
If you’re looking for a solution that creates a seamless customer experience and allows you to maintain control of your customer experience, look no further than Store Assist. It’s completely white-label, turnkey and mobile-first, and we’re ready to help you scale your fulfillment capabilities today.