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Chez César: a neighborhood grocery store at the service of its clientele

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A few days ago, we were talking about the new consumption habits that have emerged as a result of the health crisis of 2020, and their impact on the restaurant industry. As you know, this is not the only sector of activity that has had to adapt and today we'll be looking into local shops. If some of these businesses have been able to remain open throughout the health crisis, they have nevertheless had to adapt their services in order to offer their customers as much comfort and safety as possible. 

Today we're going to use the case of the app of a local grocery store that uses functionalities that will be very useful if you wish to develop the activity of your own local shop.

Chez César*, a neighborhood grocery store in Paris

Chez César is a neighborhood grocery store based near the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. From local memory, this grocery store has always been part of this neighborhood, César being the great-grandfather of the current manager. Very close to his customers, the manager relies a lot on the loyalty of the residents of the neighborhood by offering them all the basic products 7 days a week. And his formula works. His clients are loyal and regularly come to the store to buy their fresh products, or to complete their weekly shopping. 

To continue to help his clients during the Covid-19 crisis, Chez César's manager very quickly decided to offer a local delivery service and In-store pickup. This was a key factor in maintaining a neighborhood life and offering services adapted to its clients, but also to make sure that current customers did not lose their shopping habits and continued to purchase at the grocery store. The challenge was to find the best way to offer a delivery and click and collect service, without having to create overly complicated processes that would impact the existing operation of the shop. 

The challenge for the manager was to showcase the products and promotions and allow his clients to shop online easily. On top of that, he had to be able to give customers the possibility to choose the delivery method that best suited them.
Here's how the Chez César app met these needs.
The app has been designed to present the promotions offered by the grocery store as a priority like they would be in a physical store. It then displays the different departments of the grocery shop which, combined with the search engine and navigation mode, allow you to easily find the products. Finally, the delivery options are clearly presented on the Home page of the application.

Two delivery options: local delivery and In-store pickup.

In the context of a local grocery store, offering local delivery was an obvious choice. The manager of Chez César preferred to limit his delivery service to a single Parisian district, in order to be able to ensure quality service to his loyal clientele and not have to waste too much time on delivery. Local delivery has consequently been set up in the app, allowing him to offer a safe and fast service to his clients. With this local delivery service covering the area around the grocery shop, customers in the 6th arrondissement of Paris will be able to select their items quickly thanks to the quick buy button, pay for their groceries online, and then have them delivered to their homes during the time slot of their choice.
For customers living further away, the grocery shop still offers a Click and Collect service, allowing them to shop online and then pick up their order directly at the shop . This combination of options allows Chez César's manager to reach a large clientele while controlling the costs related to these new services. A delivery throughout Paris would have been too costly and time-consuming. The ultra-local delivery system combined with the ability to pick up the order directly at the shop is the perfect compromise between total customer satisfaction, a competitive upgrade, and cost control.

Organization and definition of time slots

To better organize himself and offer even more convenience to his clients, Chez César's manager decided to activate the Time Slots feature. It allows him to define slots during which customers can choose the time at which they wish to be delivered or pick up their groceries.
On top of this, advanced settings allow him to manage their prep time by defining a minimum time between each pickup as well as a frequency and number of pickups allowed per day and per time slot.

Cesar's grocery store is open 7 days a week.
To be sure to fulfill his deliveries, in-store pick-ups, and clients present in the shop, Chez César's manager has created 15-minute time slots with a maximum of 2 orders per slot. The preparation of a grocery order can take time, that's why a mandatory delay of 120 minutes has been defined between the moment the client validates the order, and the next available delivery or pick-up slot. 
Since these are groceries, customers will have the option of choosing a time slot on the same day or within 6 days of placing their order. 
This is what a checkout screen looks like on the Chez César clients' side:
This is how it's possible for a convenience store or local shop to simply offer in-store pick-up and local delivery services, maintain customer loyalty and keep up with the competition, without investing too much time and money. GoodBarber offers you all the necessary functionalities to improve your local shop!

*Fictional grocery store and application, created to illustrate this article.