People across the world can stop many things, but they can never stop grocery shopping. It is the basic need of any household. That is why this industry never witnessed any downfall.
During the last decade, we have seen online grocery shopping become very much in trend. Moreover, since the Covid-19 pandemic, online grocery shopping has increased manifolds, as social distancing has become the new normal. Before the pandemic, most of the population of the metro cities used to shop online after their office hours but for groceries, they preferred shopping at their most trusted neighbourhood stores. Now, a large section of the population is depending on online grocery shopping sites.
The battle of online vs offline shopping is a never-ending affair but today online shopping at times seems to overtake especially with the introduction of easy digital payment systems.
- PERSONAL TOUCH :
The offline grocery stores offer a totally different shopping experience than online ones. Shopping from your neighbourhood kirana stores involves a personal touch where you are physically present to buy your groceries whereas we get the freedom of choices in the case of online grocery stores. We get to order groceries online for delivery from the comfort of our homes.
- RISK FACTOR :
Customers buying from offline stores get their products as soon as they pay for them. This results in instant gratification for many. Moreover, they get to touch those things and verify the quality too. But when a customer orders from online grocery stores, the major cause of their concern is the quality and timely delivery of the product. That is a huge risk that they need to take. A reason behind it is to choose freely and from the comfort of your own home without getting into any line or physical hassle. But there are times too when the delivery delays and that causes an issue.
- CONVENIENCE & CHOICES :
Online grocery shopping is much more convenient than offline shopping any day. We can buy the product of our interest from the comfort of our homes instead of taking out our vehicle and visiting shop to shop. This not only is beneficial for us but also environmentally friendly. The online payment process is also very easy with so many online payment applications and the order is delivered to our doorstep. Choices are huge in the case of online grocery orders. The kind of variety that the customer gets online is very hard to match any product purchase offline and that influences the buying behaviour of the customers.
- PRICING :
Online grocery retailers get an advantage to profit in spite of lowering the price to the customers than offline grocery shopping as they do not have to bear the expenses like store rent, electricity bills etc. Establishment cost is minimal so prices can easily charge less and that attracts many people. This is the best tactic to drive the traffic towards online shopping as the market is very price competitive.
- DISCOUNTS & OFFERS :
Apart from low prices, most of the time, these online grocery stores run huge discounts & lucrative offers throughout their sites. It’s like they run offers that are hard to be rejected throughout the year. The terms discounts & offers attract millions of customers. People love to get discounts. They buy & spend more on online grocery shopping to avail these discounted offers than local kirana shops. The offline stores,i.e., those local kirana shops usually offer discounts during stock clearance.
- AGE & GENERATION :
We can observe that mostly the younger generation who are working, or technically sound, or are accustomed to online processes, opt for online shopping. This tends to be from 18 to 50 years even. Elderly people prefer to visit their local Kirana shops, stand in a line, check the quality and then buy in cash. The younger generation prefers online shopping to save time and money. It is easier to order groceries online for delivery at the doorstep.
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