Grocerist, a grocery tech startup, has rolled out an e-commerce fulfillment application allowing independent merchants to cut associations with third-party marketplaces. The app will also help independent grocers to launch and manage their own online operations, powering processes key to the online grocery that cannot be accommodated into the platform like packing and picking, better flexible substitutions for out-of-stock items and much more.
Grocers are making omnichannel a priority, and you can’t do omnichannel well without an e-commerce presence that you control. We think Grocerist’s new fulfillment app will play a key role in helping customers improve profitability with a comprehensive omnichannel strategy.
Matt Smith, co-founder and COO, Grocerist
About Grocerist
For the unversed, Grocerist offers a grocery-specific online business solution built on Shopify. The latest feature can be assessed from any device- be it a desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile. It is available on the Grocerist platform without any additional charges.
The company publicly launched its fulfillment application at the National Grocers Association NGA Show 2023, held in Las Vegas from February 26 to 28, 2023.
“Every day, we speak with grocers who are desperate to get off marketplaces and take control of their e-commerce destiny. Feedback on our new fulfillment app has been overwhelmingly positive – every grocer currently on our platform has plans to use it. Our combination of demand gen plus operations, tailored just for grocery, has struck a chord,” said Matt Smith, co-founder and COO of Grocerist.
“Grocers are making omnichannel a priority, and you can’t do omnichannel well without an e-commerce presence that you control. We think Grocerist’s new fulfillment app will play a key role in helping customers improve profitability with a comprehensive omnichannel strategy,” continued Smith.
Future of Grocery Selling
Research conducted by PYMNTS’ study “Big Retail’s Innovation Mandate: Convenience and Personalization,” in collaboration with ACI Worldwide concluded that 76 percent of grocers believe that consumers are likely to switch merchants if they couldn’t order products for delivery.
In the study, 300 major retailers across the United States and the United Kingdom were surveyed. Understanding the importance of delivery in building consumer loyalty is allowing grocers to do their best to build our long-term fulfillment businesses rather than relying on third-party aggregators.
“In online grocery today, the biggest shift is from independent retailers relying on others in a way that is not sustainable and not profitable to independent retailers, taking the reins and taking control and investing in this channel, because of all the value that it can create,” Jeff Anders, co-founder and CEO of Grocerist said in an interview to PYMNTS.
“We have a lot of respect for what those third-party marketplaces were able to do … in the earliest days of independent grocery eCommerce when eCommerce was 1% of sales,” Anders said.
“What we’re wondering about now is the merit of that third-party marketplace model for independent grocers now that eCommerce could account for 20+% of all grocery sales within the next several years,” he continued. With aggregators demanding per-order fees to both consumers and retailers, grocers are wondering why they shouldn’t keep that payment and also retain transaction data,” he added.
Impact of Direct Fulfillment
Hence, grocers are opting for direct fulfillment. Even smaller companies are shifting their online business in-house. Independent grocer Heinen’s recently announced that from now onwards it will directly fulfill delivery and pickup orders, pulling its stores from third-party aggregators. Heinen’s has 23 locations across Ohio and Illinois.
In its another survey of more than 2,400 U.S. consumers in December, PYMNTS did a study titled “Changes in Grocery Shopping Habits and Perception”.
The findings revealed that 45 percent of shoppers purchase groceries online some of the time, and 54 percent visit stores for their grocery shopping. Only seven percent of shoppers do online grocery shopping regularly. The figure is a 36-fold increase from the pre-pandemic era. This shows that online grocery shopping is on the rise.
Why do we Need a Loyalty Program?
“If a retailer in-store doesn’t have a loyalty program, which a lot of the smaller ones do not, it’s really hard, if not impossible, to know who exactly is buying what, and so online allows a degree of analytics and that leads to … much better communication. I think a year from now we’re going to be hearing stories like Grocer X [is adding] personalized offers, seeing basket size grow, seeing the share of wallet grow,” Anders said.
“With custom applications like Grocerist’s fulfillment app, the Grocerist team is unlocking the power of Shopify for use in the grocery e-commerce environment,” said Peter Leech, managing director of The Partnering Group, a global retail consultancy.
“The opportunity for grocers to finally be able to leverage the stability and ongoing innovation pipeline of Shopify is exciting,” he added.
Grocerist aims to modernize and digitize the industry of independent grocery worldwide. Its solution will help grocers attract new customers, boost average order value, drive commerce on social media, build loyalty and moreover earn profits both online and offline with the help of a wide array of digital marketing tools and services.
Gong’s Market Sucess
In September 2022, Grocerist helped Shopify store Gong’s Market to receive authorization from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to accept SNAP EBT payments online. Thanks to the Grocerist’s solution, Gong’s Market became the first store with such authority in the US state of California.
“Grocerist made it possible for us to reach more customers and grow our business. Grocerist helps run our e-commerce technology, marketing, and analytics so we can focus on best serving our customers,” Michael Ohashi of Gong’s Market said as quoted by supermarketnews.com.
Grocerist is the only solution available on Shopify for online grocers to meet USDA standards and achieve SNAP payment authorization. According to supermarketnews.com, over 42 million people benefit from the SNAP program in the US. In the fiscal year 2021, the government spent $105 billion under this initiative.
Grocerist’s Intent
Grocerist aims to upgrade the independent grocery industry with Shopify’s e-commerce platform. The solution allows local grocers to set up Shopify stores with high-quality product imagery, weight-based selling options, packing facility, delivery, substitutions and alcohol selling. Add to this, Grocerist assists grocers in digital marketing practices and social media sharing.
“Grocerist makes it affordable and manageable for the independent grocer to successfully compete with the industry giants online. We launch new grocers in weeks, help design and execute their marketing, and enable them to harness the power of digital in order to grow and profit,” Smith said.
Grocerist works with each of their clients as a part of their workforce. Apart from marketing support, the solution also provides grocers with the right training to sell online. By taking care of the technological requirements, Grocerist allows grocers to focus on maintaining the quality of goods.
“As a result of this approach, Grocerist can make an otherwise inaccessible enterprise-grade solution accessible to independent grocers,” Anders said.
