Online grocer
An online supermarket is an electronic trading vendor whose product range of food, stimulants and drug store products is approximately equal to that of a conventional supermarket, and in particular also includes fresh food. About the Internet and user accounts as well as personal settings, such as electronic shopping lists are managed. Some offer online supermarkets their customers the option of a conventional delivery service by placing an order via fax or phone. The clientele of online supermarkets form mainly private households.
The acceptance of online supermarkets depends on many factors, such as price, quality and availability of the goods delivered, the length and design of the delivery, the ease of use of the user interface, as well as the competing offer conventional supermarkets in view about price, quality, range of products, opening times, parking and customer friendliness.
Online Supermarkets in individual countries
- In Germany, a number of major providers share the market for online sales of fresh food. However, the industry innovators are consistently startups. For a few years there is delivered online supermarkets worldwide. There are also other deals with geographically limited delivery area. More common in Germany supplier of frozen foods. The regional delivery marks, in contrast to food parcel shipping through more and more. The industry giants to put all direct delivery instead of parcel shipping. Rarely providers are represented nationally, only three companies (as of 2013) are represented in more than four cities. Most sites listed currently food.de, a young Berliner pure player with six towns, directly followed by REWE (5 cities) and Emperor (4 cities) two of the large suppliers.
- In the Netherlands, the online supermarket offer is expanded nationwide since 2000 and is used, among others, families with young children and older people. Albert Heijn maintains a database for recipes with the possibility to transfer the respective required ingredients directly to the shopping list. In the Netherlands, there are also competing offers.
- In Quebec, Canada, in 1998 launched a project can place their orders by means of a barcode reader in the client; A similar project was started by Tesco.
- In France, since 2007 offer the supermarket chains Auchan and Leclerc to a drive-in service, pick up at the ordered goods customers online with your own car.
- In Switzerland there are two large online supermarkets, coop @ home and leshop.ch. LeShop was one of the first online supermarkets, now he is one of Migros.
In the U.S., there is a variety of online supermarket offers. Also in Spain, France and the UK, the Internet-based supermarket is quite well developed. The company dominates Tesco in the UK market and is considered the world's largest online supermarket.
Criticism
- Critics explain when shopping online were compared to the conventional shopping creativity and spontaneity is lost. On a weekly market, for example, could be inspired to fresh produce for sale and to an appropriate planning of meals the offer. When ordering, consumers could assess the freshness of food is not directly and it offers no opportunities for conversation between seller and buyer.
- The online shopping to prefer large suppliers, as only these could offer an appropriate infrastructure.
- The size of the products is no longer a direct and immediate experience - it is in the pure illustration example of standard cans of soup without a benchmark not clear what quantity they contain.
- Online supermarkets are due to the significantly higher variable costs compared to LEH a huge cost disadvantage. You need to offer more expensive if they want to avoid losses. Also due to the subsequent supply (low customer benefits ) they are overrated and will only lead a niche for certain groups of customers in the long term.