Any shopping experience is all about CONVENIENCE. Imagine walking into a supermarket, picking up whatever you need on your shopping list. Pay with your smartphone and walk straight out to your car. Grocery shopping is done. No queues, no cashiers. What a digital shopping experience.
That wasn’t the scenario in reality, at least not in Malaysia. Half of my shopping experience is walking up and down the store searching for an item, or looking for a price checker machine. Sometimes ended up feeling frustrated.
THE CURRENT SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
Grocery stores were already inefficient in many ways. If you remove those stores’ signage, they look virtually the same. They are built to provide shoppers to browse the store, rather than getting goods to customers with maximum efficiency.
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed frustration to the limit. When the Movement Control Order (MCO) was first imposed on 18th March 2020 to break the infection chain; only two persons from each household were allowed to leave home to get daily essential needs. Physical distancing becomes the normal standard too.
Since then, endless lines are a major issue. From entering to checking out, lines are a nuisance and a huge waste of time. Shoppers have been forced to put up with it.
THE ALTERNATIVE
Any shopping experience is all about CONVENIENCE
With the Coronavirus pandemic in mind, can we offer an alternative digital shopping experience by reducing time in-store?
Organizing around the customer journey is critical in today’s business model to make shoppers feel awesome. All we want are less time of exposure and an easier shopping experience than before.
Humanness and value innovation are the two main keys to successful transformation. The new model should change the in-store shopping experience. Customer satisfaction is the top priority of this change.
According to the survey conducted by Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC), 88.7% of the Malaysian population in 2020 are connecting to the Internet. Furthermore, the Internet population access through smartphones has reached a near-saturation level of 98.7%.
Not surprisingly, Shopee announced that it recorded nearly 430 million orders in the first quarter of 2020. It also revealed that they sold 12 million items within the first 24 minutes of the December 12th sale. 120 packs of Milo were sold per minute in the morning on that day; over 628,000 skincare items were sold.
Humanness and value innovation are two main keys to successful digital transformation
The pandemic is driving the growth of the digital economy globally, as well as here in Malaysia. In addition, the surge in shopping activity was met with the increasing adoption of digital payments. I myself have not made any cash withdrawals since April 2020. I personally enjoy the convenience of Boost and GrabPay e-wallets.
DIGITAL LIFESTYLE COMING
It’s time for supermarkets to adopt and shift their shopping experience to the digital lifestyle.
A customer-centric shopping model is a right solution to higher customer satisfaction. Starting by eliminating cash registers and checkout lines. Next, goods and products are arranged in a more organized manner. Supermarkets were betting on impulsive buying since the 80s; consumers are smarter and more conscious today. The old way is no longer suitable.
Why shop online? CONVENIENCE & CHEAPER PRICE
Instead of putting price tags manually, stores should display price tags digitally. Apart from that, get rid of the physical membership card. Use the store’s app as a replacement to easily track purchase records. Besides that, tracking shoppers’ purchase offers better knowledge of sales reports, the ability to personalized promotions, accurate inventory forecasts and more.
Finally, Contactless! In an effort to reduce social contact, shoppers swipe smartphones at self-checkout kiosks.
To further refine segmentation and greater customization, a product catalogue is provided in the store’s app, just like a library’s book catalogue. Shoppers can search for an item in particular and locate it by which row and which rack.
Why would I buy dried mushrooms, dried nuts, Milo packs and others from Shopee sellers? The answer is simple – CONVENIENCE and CHEAPER PRICE.
Grocery delivery services are getting popular since the pandemic. Offering delivery service to shoppers close to the location could accelerate the digital transition. This would clearly serve a large growing population without needing them to ever visit your store. Otherwise, Click & Collect is a great shopping option to choose from.
The Lunar New Year is coming in two weeks. 2021 marks a pivot point in the retail industry across the globe. I look forward to a happier in-store shopping experience.