The Future Of Grocery Shopping

Online grocery shopping has now become popular with the availability of numerous different platforms for consumers to choose from. These are not just the online version of our local supermarkets like NTUC Fairprice, Giant and Cold Storage.

The products available are hardly limited, offering almost everything you can find in the supermarket, online. Redmart, for instance, has over 25,000 products available for your selection.

Here are a few of the popular online grocery stores in Singapore:

• Redmart: Anything and everything.
• GoFresh: Mostly food items. Offer flash sales and easy meals.
• TheFishwives: Great for fresh, premium seafood as well as superior meat products. They provide recipes for meat and fish dishes as well.

Why opt to purchase your groceries online rather than the physical supermarket?

#1 Convenience

Ordering from online grocery stores means that you no longer need to lug huge grocery bags back home. This is great if your house is a long walk from the supermarket or if you had plans to purchase bulky items like diapers and toilet paper.

Note that delivery is not always free, usually requiring consumers to have minimum spending. Free delivery:

GoFresh – Above $60

The Fishwives – Above $150

Redmart – Above $49

Although it might seem difficult to hit the minimum spending set, this would not be too difficult if you are buying groceries for the next few days or the entire week.

#2 Efficiency Of Delivery

These grocery deliveries are usually delivered the next day. For example, Redmart lets you choose a 2-hour slot based on availability, allowing you to schedule the delivery a few days ahead if you don’t want the delivery tomorrow.

#3 Fair Price

The prices listed online are fairly reasonable and sites such as Honestbee tell you that the prices shown are the same as in-store. Similar to our supermarkets, sites like GoFresh and Redmart also offer weekly savings to help you save more with your purchases.

Redmart is very confident in this aspect, promising to pay consumers 2 times the difference when we show them better prices than theirs for beverages and alcohol. Redmart also allows you to add items to your list and notifies you when the item goes on sale.

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#4 Quality Of Products

Most online grocery shops guarantee you quality (e.g. GoFresh promises 100% satisfaction guarantee). However, this is also something online grocery stores will find difficult to assure their customers. As much as it can say “quality guaranteed”, we do not really know the product till we get it, especially when the product might get damaged during the delivery process.

This means that the quality of the product is something the store has to gain the consumers’ trust and confidence in, especially with the first few purchases.

Does This Mean Physical Supermarkets Will Become Obsolete?

Of course not. It is impossible to replicate online what the supermarket offers you – the ability to pick and choose products right in front of you. Some customers might want riper bananas or tomatoes for quick consumption while others might want to keep it for a few days.

Supermarkets offer more variety and options for customers to choose from. Some people might not even know what they want or need until they see it. In physical supermarkets, you can see the product quality for itself and there is quality guaranteed especially after your many years of purchasing from the same supermarket.

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