“It must be simple for the customers, they shouldn’t even need to get out of their cars. Qmatic’s system for notification is undoubtedly worth the investment due to the flexibility it provides for both customers and staff.”
ICA Boost its Online Shopping with Click & Collect from Qmatic
Since ICA Maxi Erikslund started its online initiative, the store has become the largest outlet for online shopping within ICA – the leading grocery retailer in Sweden with 1300 stores.
According to store manager Daniel Kvist, the most important reason for their success is their focus on simple and effective collections by using Click & Collect from Qmatic. With the Click & Collect solution from Qmatic, customers can purchase what they want online, select a time and date to pickup orders, and get a message notification when their order is ready to pick up with ease and efficiency by using the drive thru.
Satisfied Customers
The customers response to ICA’s online shopping experience and its drive thru solution has been extremely positive. And some of the customers even says it’s the best thing that has happened because of its simplicity.
Secure, Simple and Clear Process
Malin Siljebäck is the responsible for the Online Shopping at ICA Maxi Erikslund and her team consists of 18 people that works daily with picking up, transporting, and delivering the ordered groceries to the designated spot for pick up. Malin recounts that customers previously had to go into the store to collect their items, but with Qmatic Click & Collect the customers don’t even need to get out of their cars if they don’t want to.
With ICA’s Online Shopping, customers shop and place their order online and selects the delivery or pick up method together with a time slot for delivery or pick up. The order arrives at the store during the night and all orders are picked early in the morning in the order in which they are to be collected.
Once everything is ready to be collected, the customer receives a text message with a link from Qmatic’s system 30 minutes before the time slot they selected. The customer then arrives to the store, activates the link and enters his/her registration number.
Store personnel receives a notification on their phone that the customer has arrived through Qmatic’s application and through the digital signage inside the store. If the staff are working somewhere else in the store, they are quickly informed through the app to attend the customer that’s waiting.
The staff then walks out to the customer car, put the shopping bags in the car, and all the customer has to do is to sign and drive away. The process is simple and clear, for both customers and staff.
Online shopping places requirements on the physical store as it needs space to store and distribute the pre-packaged deliveries effectively. ICA Maxi Erikslund started with a small existing premise but has expanded as the demand for online shopping has increased so rapidly. The investment in pick-up, along with notification and registration of arrival by cell phone is what is rated most highly by the customers and it is also what has contributed most to our increase in online sales. Today about 80% of online customers select collection via the drive thru, which means that we dispatch around 500 orders per week, Malin Siljebäck reports.
Success Factors
Daniel Kvist says that the most important advice for a store that wants to provide Online Shopping together with Click & Collect is to invest in a proper drive thru for pick up, so that a large number of pick-ups can be handled efficiently.
Want to know more about Click & Collect from Qmatic?
Overview
ICA is the leading grocery retailer in Sweden with 1,300 stores. Many of its stores also include a pharmacy, a post office and banking services. ICA even has its own bank – ICA-banken.
Challenges
- Customers want to shop online and collect order when it suits them
- Simplicity and clarity for customers and store personnel in connection with collections
- Effective handling of a large number of online orders per day
Solution
Results
- Effective collection of a large number of online orders per day
- Better customer experience with simple and clear process for collection
- Clear notification for collection outlet personnel who can have secondary duties in off-peak periods
- More loyal customers
- Increased online sales
