Grocers are trying new strategies to handle increased demand for online orders

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The coronavirus pandemic is pushing consumers to avoid stores and limit their contact with others, but they still need groceries, likely explaining the recent increase in grocery app downloads reported by Apptopia. But some grocers are struggling to keep up with the demand for online grocery, leading firms to introduce new initiatives that could help them fulfill more orders in a timely manner.

• Amazon is pushing its warehouse workers to start putting together orders for its grocery services instead, which could enable it to handle more grocery orders. The e-tailer is offering some warehouse workers a $2 increase to their hourly wage if they switch to working with grocery orders, so it can meet surging demand, Reuters reports. Amazon is already looking to hire 100,000 workers to build out its fulfillment and delivery capabilities, but its interest in shifting some of its employees toward grocery suggests that online grocery is a high priority at the moment. And if Amazon can consistently fulfill grocery orders at a fast pace, it could win more online grocery sales during and even after the pandemic, though it may need to contend with a strike from Whole Foods employees to succeed.
• Kroger is making one of its stores pickup-only, potentially allowing it to fulfill orders more efficiently. The existing store in Ohio will no longer allow in-store shopping and instead dedicate employees to putting together online orders for pickup, per Supermarket News. Kroger views this effort as a test of a new store concept, though it remains to be seen if it will convert any more of its almost 2,800 stores to pickup-only. Making some locations pickup-only could pay off for retailers because it limits associates' exposure to consumers, possibly minimizing the risk of them falling ill; cuts down on store traffic, potentially enabling employees to put together orders faster than they could in a store full of shoppers; and allows merchants to offer more pickup times, which are currently being booked days in advance in some cases.

Meanwhile, OpenTable is helping consumers reserve in-store shopping times at some merchant locations, illustrating brick-and-mortar grocery's limits and, in turn, the importance of effective online grocery fulfillment during this crisis.

The restaurant reservation platform is helping select pop-up markets and grocers control traffic by offering consumers time slots where they can visit a store, per The Verge. It's also reportedly in talks to work with national grocers - and if grocers cut down their traffic, possibly hurting their in-store sales, it will make effectively fulfilling online orders and meeting increased demand even more important to their success.

The grocery providers that are able to best adjust and handle online grocery orders during the pandemic may position themselves to lead the online grocery industry long term. When the coronavirus pandemic begins to subside, consumers may still make online grocery orders because of their convenience, and if they're still concerned about interacting with others, especially since online grocery was already gaining popularity before the pandemic.

These consumers may continue to shop with the online grocer they used during the pandemic because they're already familiar with it, so the grocers need to find ways to handle as many orders as possible now.

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