New Delhi: Do online grocery shoppers really want their groceries delivered in eight minutes? Not really, if a new survey is to be believed.
Despite the proliferation of quick-delivery services, most users don’t care about how quickly their items are delivered, according to a pan-India survey. Instead, importance is placed on value for money and the quality of products.
A survey by LocalCircles — a prominent community platform that conducts surveys on issues of governance, public, and consumer interest — shows that 61 per cent of online grocery shoppers were willing to wait 3-24 hours for their groceries.
Only about 3 per cent of these shoppers were looking to get their groceries delivered within 30 minutes and pay a platform delivery fee, according to the survey, which was based on 87,000 responses from household consumers in 254 districts across India.
“It is clear that for (the) majority of the household consumers who purchase groceries online, quality of produce and products and value for money are the key parameters they use to decide which grocery platforms to place their orders with,” LocalCircles said in its report.
According to the survey, 52 per cent of those who buy groceries online plan orders that are monthly or weekly with top-ups in some cases, while 23 per cent place their orders on an “as needed” basis.
Only 17 per cent of online grocery shoppers do their buying online when they need something urgently, according to the survey, which had 48 per cent of the respondents from metro/tier 1 cities, 32 per cent from tier 2 cities, and 20 per cent from tier 3 and 4, and rural districts.
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‘Need to rethink strategy’
The report noted that platforms like Big Basket, Amazon Fresh, and Flipkart Grocery offer the option of selecting delivery slots — something that 28 per cent of respondents said they preferred. While some of the quick-delivery apps are currently waiving delivery fees, this element can be problematic for them once they begin charging it, the report read.
“Some of the quick grocery platforms have been waiving delivery fees to get consumers hooked to fast grocery delivery,” it said. “However, there is a likelihood that the moment these delivery fees are imposed, some consumers may reduce their usage depending on the delivery fee and order value.”
The survey indicates that the quick-delivery apps may need to rethink their strategies if they want to really make inroads into the grocery delivery market in India since their main selling point — quick deliveries — is not highly valued by customers.
“Given that over half of the online grocery consumers still order their groceries monthly or weekly and only 17 per cent order online due to urgent delivery, the study indicates that currently the quick grocery apps may largely be getting used for incidental or last-minute purchases,” the report said.
Quick delivery apps will have to provide value pricing, service, and selection “at par with the established online grocery platforms and deliver the service in many more locations” if they want to tap into the primary grocery spending of online grocery buyers, it said.
The big question here, the report added, is whether these quick delivery apps will be able to raise the capital and scale up quickly enough before the established platforms shorten their delivery times and deliver groceries in the 3-6 hour window.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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