RWRetailWire
Back to Discussions
DISCUSSION

Building an Effective Supermarket Retail Website

Written by RetailWire Staff
By Al McClain

A report out by Bill Bishop, chairman of Willard Bishop, aims to decipher what supermarket websites need to do to best communicate with shoppers. The report is based on multiple visits to websites of eight retailers -- Festival Foods, Giant Food Stores, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, Kroger, Publix, Safeway, and Schnucks -- as well as an evaluation of their outbound (primarily e-mail) communications. Here are some of the findings based on the report, which was conducted in June through October of 2009:

(Note: While Bishop noted the importance of social media in his introduction, that area was not covered in the study.) E-newsletters are important and keeping them out of the recipient's junk folder is key. Festival Foods, Harris Teeter, and Kroger opt to use simple and consistent subject lines, while Wegmans varies the subject line to make each edition more eye-catching. Festival Foods presents a short and sweet e-letter, while Wegmans goes into more detail, highlighting the circular, presenting recipes, linking to video clips, etc. The Wegmans approach is along the lines of "bringing the site to the customer" in case they don't make it to the site. Personalization and making the e-mail "need-to-read" are also important.

Ease of access to the site is big, as is making navigation simple. Festival Foods offers a unique home page for each store while Wegmans rolled out improved navigation in late September. Six of the eight sites reviewed give consumers the ability to access special deals by signing in or becoming a site member.

Most of the sites offer meal-planning tools, such as recipes and cooking videos, while Festival Foods offers a daily lunch menu and Wegmans showcases its take-out items.

Five of the eight sites offer online shopping, but Wegmans, Publix and Kroger do not. Delivery is offered by Safeway and Schnucks. Store pick-up is offered by Harris Teeter, Giant, and Festival Foods. All of the retailers provided a way to build a shopping list online. Wegmans also provides a store map so the consumer can see where the items are in the store. Harris Teeter shows prices as items are added to the list. Giant and Kroger offer ways to take advantage of online coupons. Harris Teeter, Publix, and Giant all offer party planning options.

Six of the eight sites offer diet programs, and some have staff nutritionists or even a physician who can answer questions online. Most of the sites provide some sort of wellness center and/or links to outside sources.

In terms of building relationships with consumers: Wegmans offers to store recipes from previous searches; Festival Foods and Giant Foods keep records of shopping lists and frequently purchased items; Safeway has a section on stretching a budget; and Schnucks has an advisory board that shoppers can join.

Most of the sites tout their ties to the local community through various charitable programs and several have community calendars and tie-ins. Bishop suggests that to do more with their sites, supermarkets think about promoting them on shopping bags, ads, circulars, in-store signage, labels of private label products, and on receipts and badges.

Discussion Questions: How well do you think supermarket websites engage shoppers? Is having a top notch website important for supermarket operators? What are the key areas supermarket websites should focus on?

Discussion Thread0