eGrocery USA - Online Grocery Shopping Solutions for eGrocers

		eGrocery Facts & Success Factors

		eGrocery Newsletter

		Typical Customer Profile

		Who is offering eGrocery?

		Different Picking Models

		Fulfilment
Home Delivery
Pickup Model
Workplace Shopping

		eGrocery Assessor

FULFILLMENT

Fulfillment

The important thing to remember when supplying the customer with their online order, is that the process must be convenient. The customer should be able to choose between collecting their order from the store, or having it delivered to an address within the delivery radius. Several pick-up venues should be supplied, along with multiple delivery slots so as to provide convenience and choice.

Ideally, minimum order values (e.g. you must spend at least $50) should not be imposed as this places a virtual blocker in the path of a customer who might otherwise have reached that minimum value. If your fulfillment operation is run efficiently, you should be able to break even on your fulfillment costs by using a service charge that is perceived as reasonable by the customer.

There are three main methods for order fulfillment.

Home Delivery
Pick-Up
Workplace Shopping

Customers inter-mix these methods as their needs change. There are a number of factors that need to be considered when choosing between delivery, pick-up or a mixture of the two:

- Capacity levels
- Store location and facilities
- Customer services and options
- Balance of costs – efficient utilization of resources
- Catchment Area

Staging areas
Once orders have been picked they will need to be labeled and stored in a safe, secure and temperature controlled environment before they are delivered. A typical order will consist of 3 ambient totes, 2 chilled totes and 1 frozen tote. The totes do not take up much room and are designed to be stacked on top of each other without damaging their contents. Ambient totes are stored in a dedicated and cordoned off section in the back room (approx 10’ x 6’) and a smaller dedicated space will need to be provided in the cooler (6’ x 6’) and the freezer (6’ x 4’).

The totes are always stacked label-out so as to make identification as easy as possible. Picking is done as close to the point of fulfillment as is feasible so as to minimize the number of totes that are stored and it is the dispatch manager’s job to ensure that each delivery or pick-up slot gets the correct number of totes. A ‘run-sheet’ is printed which gives information on how many orders belong to each delivery or Pick-Up slot with each of those orders broken down into their composite totes e.g. “11am to 1pm Delivery slot = 9 orders. Order No. 1234 = 3 ambient / 1 chilled / 1 frozen” and so on for all 9 orders.

All totes are then taken from their respective areas and amalgamated into complete orders and either made ready for pick-up or else placed in the respective compartments within the temperature controlled delivery trucks.