Online ‘order-and-pickup’ grocery shopping growing in popularity
Walmart employee Sophia Waychoff places items from an online order into a customer’s car in Washington.
Walmart employee Tommie Linneman pulls a cart full of items from an online order to be loaded into a customer’s car in Washington.
Caroline Kline doesn’t enjoy lugging her 3-year-old daughter and 2-month-old son through the aisles of local grocery stores.
“Shopping with two kids is not convenient or easy. You’re always praying there’s no line at checkout,” said Kline, of Canonsburg, a math teacher at Chartiers-Houston High School.
So when a co-worker told her about Walmart’s online grocery ordering service, which gives shoppers the option to order their groceries online and pick them up later at the store, she decided to give it a try.
Kline is glad she did.
She placed an order, pulled into a designated order pickup area on the side of the store, paid for the $160 grocery order, popped her trunk so a Walmart personal shopper could load her purchases, and drove away. She didn’t have to leave her car.
“I love it,” said Kline. “It saved me time, and it saved me money by not picking up random things like I usually do when I’m shopping. I will definitely do it again.”
Walmart has offered the online grocery and pickup service, called Walmart Grocery, for at least four years, and introduced to its store near Washington in January. The company offers the same service at its Summit Park Drive location in North Fayette.
“It offers our customers another way to shop at Walmart, without adding price,” said Carrie Nagy, e-commerce market coach for Walmart. “It’s a great option for busy moms or the elderly who have a hard time navigating the store. They can shop with the convenience of never leaving the car.”
Other grocery stores have jumped into the grocery e-commerce game. Most recently, Giant Eagle rolled out its Curbside Express service at its Washington store last month, and the service is now available in 14 Pittsburgh-area Giant Eagle and Market District locations, including in Bethel Park and McMurray.
“Since its launch in Pittsburgh in April 2012, our Curbside Express service has become increasingly popular with customers throughout our footprint, as we have noted double-digit percentage, year-over-year growth in the service,”Giant Eagle spokesman Richard Roberts said.
Andrea Grosso of North Strabane Township, who used Curbside Express at Giant Eagle’s Robinson Township Market District location and appreciated its convenience, looks forward to using the service at the local store.
At Walmart, the ordering process is straighforward. Customers go to walmart.com/grocery or use the Walmart Grocery mobile app, order groceries, and select a pickup time during checkout. Orders placed before 1 p.m. can be picked up the same day.
Personal grocery shoppers fill the orders, selecting the freshest produce, meats and other items requested by the shopper.
The process is similar at Giant Eagle, where pickups can be scheduled as soon as four hours after the order is placed.
Kline said she was hesitant to have someone else choose her produce, “but everything was excellent.”
While online ordering and pickup is a small portion of grocery store sales, it accounted for about 3 to 6 percent of the estimated $675 billion grocery sales market in the United States in 2016.
It is growing in popularity, Nagy said, and driven by convenience, saving tech-savvy shoppers valuable time during their busy days. Customers can shop for tens of thousands of items.
Giant Eagle charges $4.95 for each order, though the charge is waived on the first three orders for new Curbside Express customers. There is no fee at Walmart, but it requires a $30 minimum order.
Walmart also offers $10 off an order for anybody using its online shopping and pickup service for the first time.