It's the right time for food retailers to log on - online marketing - Food Merchandising - Editorial

Discount Store News, Oct 7, 1996 by Laura Liebeck

If anyone has their doubts about cyberretailing, they must have their heads in the sand.

Consumers everywhere are looking for alternative shopping options and on-line shopping fits the bill nicely.

Although cybershopping isn't yet a fact of life for most people, it is for many and will be for many more. Food shopping over the Internet just makes good sense, especially for time-pressed, sick or disabled people.

I know there are some naysayers out there who talk about the high costs of operation and of payback too far in the future to make it viable. Some even complain about the delivery costs associated with using on-line services. But the reality is that start-up costs in new industries are almost always high and good customer service costs money.

What we're talking about here is the commitment to serve customers in the way they want to be served. Fred Schneider, executive director of SMART STORE for Andersen Consulting, told me recently that he feels people are becoming "too fixated" on the medium when the real issue is serving customers appropriately. He's right. Some consumers want to shop this way, others don't. The ones who do just so happen to be better fixed financially than some of the others and, according to various studies, spend more money on their on-line purchases than do shoppers who visit the store in person. So regardless of the costs right now, on-line shopping is becoming a bigger part of more people's lives. The challenge for participating companies is to find ways to take the costs out of the process so that more consumers can afford and enjoy it.

Author, columnist and Internet guru Stevan Alburty stressed to me the need to make the on-line shopping experience better than the real thing to attract even more shoppers into the "store"; the companies profiled in this issue's cover story, "Grocery Shopping in Cyberspace," have all attempted to do that in varying ways and with varying results.

Each one has created programs to appeal to shoppers who want to, need to or have to shop at home. And they have attracted both partner grocery chains and consumers. All I see on the horizon is more improvement and ultimately more users.

Alburty threw a small wrench into the equation, though, when he said that many people only think they want to shop in cyberspace; they simply don't have the experience with on-line shopping to know for sure whether they like it enough to do it.

That may be so, but I think the issue is customers, willingness to try. And people are certainly interested in trying and they appear to like the idea of shopping over the computer.

My 7-year-old is one such discerning customer. When I was scanning the newswire at home one night and read that Stop and Shop was initiating a shop-at-home program over the Internet with Peapod, my daughter was excited.

"Great," said Emma. "Now we don't have to go food shopping again." (She was disappointed to learn the program isn't available in our area yet - so was I.)

She knows what the rest of us have known for years: food shopping can be a drag, a time-consuming drag. And with the computer, at least the task of buying food won't be long. With home delivery, even better.

Granted, some people like walking the aisles of the food store looking for and sometimes, hopefully, tasting new creations. I do, too. But sometimes we don't have that luxury and shopping from home, especially via computer, is a perfect solution. Food shopping in pajamas, on the back deck, at your desk, whenever and wherever it is convenient. Nirvana.

And as the technology and services expand, on-line grocery shopping may even be fun - for many who already use it, being able to cybershop is fun. Imagine that - fun and convenient.

Further, statistics have shown that cybershoppers are more loyal than the in-person shoppers. So why not do it, retailers? You have a choice. Do it now as an offensive, strategic move, or do it later as a defensive one. Grocery shopping in cyberspace will soon be a fact of life; join in or be left behind.