How To Reduce Grocery Delivery Costs

One of the biggest deterrents to your customers ordering more from your online store is grocery delivery costs associated with getting their items to their homes or places of work – even if they live in prime grocery delivery areas. But there’s good news because customers who shop at your specialty or independent grocery store already do so for one or several highly personal reasons. 

Tapping into those reasons while capitalizing on the shift to online ordering spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic should reflect why your customers are loyal to your brand. That said, the best way to retain customers and grow your business online is to help them reduce grocery delivery costs.

Buy Online, Pick-Up Instore is a Popular Method

Local Express’s early research has shown that Pick-Up (BOPUS/BOPIS – Buy Online Pick-Up instore) is more popular for our retailers’ customers than actual delivery. As a store owner, you can use Local Express’ Marketing tools that integrate with Mailchimp and other automated platforms to market to customers in your own database through social media, coupons, promotions, and many other ways.

This will save your audience even more money if they choose to pick up their items in person. Local Express has some “up-sell” features but only based on previous customer purchases.  However, we can integrate with a technology partner application that provides such elements so that when your customers are checking out, they don’t forget items they might’ve wanted to buy that weren’t on their list. This little ‘nudge’ means one less trip to the store for them, and a slight bump in profits for you.

Go Beyond the Competition

Local Express can deliver orders up to 15 miles away – much further than UberEats, Doordash, or GrubHub. Our clients have indicated that their customers are willing to put up with delivery fees for specialty items in order to cover that extra distance between your store and their front door.

“We’re a Filipino market. Anything you were buying when you were growing up in the Philippines, you can get a version of that on our Local Express site,” said Jonas C. Veneracion, IT Manager at Seafood City in Pomona, California. 

“We get lots of requests from people in other states for items, and it’s something we’re working on right now with Local Express – expanding our delivery range to the outside that 15-mile radius,” he added.

Local Express is willing to work with your store or chain to suit your own needs. We’re a growing company and want to help more independent businesses like yours get online, even if that means working nights and weekends to do so. You’re willing to travel that extra mile beyond the competition, and so are we.

Hot Food and Prepared Food Items Net Big Wins

Even before the pandemic, “prepared meals” was a very profitable department for groceries. Sometimes your customers want to pick up a hot meal along with their weekly staples and save the cooking for another day, and we want to help you meet that need. Local Express can deliver your customers’ groceries and lunch to them at the same time – this can save on delivery costs for your customers who would have ordered food for lunch and later ordered groceries anyway. 

Grocery delivery costs often deter customers, and although there’s no surefire way to eliminate those types of charges completely, there are ways to shave off costs in other ways while also selling more products that you can use to grow your online business. 

For more tips on improving your operations, streamlining your services, and saving your customers money explore our blog.