Sites & Services >> July 2006 (Issue 98)

Buying groceries online

If the task of replenishing the ever-diminishing supplies of milk, coffee and toilet paper falls to you, have you considered using the Internet? ALEX ZANDSTRA looks at your online grocery options.

On the face of it, shopping for your groceries online makes a lot of sense — you can save time, shop when it suits you and have your shopping delivered to your door at a time of your choice. You also avoid the other nasties associated with a trip to the supermarket, such as queues, impulse buying, uncontrollable trolleys and screaming kids! So, why aren’t we all rushing down the cyber aisles with our electronic shopping carts?

It’s almost as if we are too busy to try something new that will save us time! Admittedly, it will take a while to look around on your first visit or two, but you don’t have to do everything all at once. If you register on the site, you can save the contents of your shopping trolley and go back to it later. And once you’ve got a master list of groceries you buy regularly, future shopping trips are just a matter of a few clicks here and there to add or delete items.

The online services we looked at offer delivery times between 7am and 10pm on weekdays and 7am and 9pm on Saturdays, with some offering a Sunday service. You can pick either a two-hour or four-hour timeslot for even greater convenience. The delivery fee is a consideration, but if you factor in the cost of petrol and parking fees, and you value your time (and your sanity!), you’ll realise that it’s a small price to pay for the service.

How it works
The first thing you need to do when considering shopping for groceries online, is to check whether the service delivers to your suburb, how much it is going to cost and at what times they deliver. The next step is to register on the site. This is just a matter of choosing a username and password on some sites; on others you’ll need to provide a bit more detail up front, such as contact details. Then you can start filling your trolley.

There are several ways to shop for products on your first visit to an online grocery store. You can browse through categories just as you would in a physical store, adding items to your trolley as you go; or if you know exactly what you want, you can search for products by name. You can also browse the special lists provided on each site; typically these are weekly specials and bestsellers, plus a range of quick lists and suggested buys. Some sites offer an ‘express shop’ feature (see ‘What is?, right), which is a great way to shop and quite a bit faster. Once you have placed an order, it is saved so next time, instead of starting from scratch, you can just add and delete items as required.

For each product on the site, pertinent information is displayed such as size, price, a brief description and usually a picture. When you’ve made your choice, just click the product to add it to your trolley. On most sites, the trolley contents and the cost so far are visible as you browse, which is a great help when you’re trying to stick to a budget.

When you’re done, you can review the trolley contents, make any changes, then head for the checkout. You then complete your delivery details; select a delivery time and payment method; and you’re out of there. No heavy lifting, no grappling with wobbly trolleys, no queuing — just sit back and make yourself a cup of tea.

Any negatives?
Well, there are a few, which could explain people’s reluctance to use this apparently fantastic service.

First up, it will cost you a bit more — but convenience always come at a price. We did a comparison shop at the major online stores as well as at two ‘bricks and mortar’ stores. The results of our shopping comparison can be found at www.netguide.com.au/magazine/pulp/98/chart.php.You’ll see that the prices in the physical stores we visited were consistently cheaper than their online counterparts, with many of the items on special.

Shopping for your groceries online means you can’t pick up the product to read the label, check the use-by date and so on. However, Greengrocer.com.au is beginning to add product ingredients to its product descriptions. Hopefully, this will expand to include all the information you would normally find on the label for those with special dietary needs.

Also, if you rely on your supermarket trip to get you out of the house for a bit of social interaction, you’re probably not going to substitute it with a visit to your PC.

You need to have a good idea of what you want to buy when shopping for groceries online. If you rely on getting ideas from strolling down the aisles, scrolling through lists of products, rather than seeing them on the shelves, won’t provide quite the same inspiration.

With any new shopping experience, even in a physical location, you need to get used to your surroundings and what’s on offer. However, if you expect to easily translate your visit to Woolies into a HomeShop experience, you’ll be disappointed.

What’s on offer?
We took a trip to the major online grocery stores to see what they offer in terms of range of products, ways to shop, special features and so on. If the major sites don’t deliver in your area, a number of other online grocery stores that operate in particular areas of Australia may be suitable for you.