MENY is testing mobile grocery lockers – convenient for customers 

By Nils Vanebo, published in Retail Magasinet on Tuesday, March 16, 2021 

Online grocery shopping is growing, with MENY and Kolonial.no as the leading players in Norway. Most of the orders are delivered to customers’ homes. 

Click & collect grocery lockers located outside grocery stores are used to a smaller extent in Norway than in other European countries, not least in our neighbouring country Sweden, but the volume of online orders is high and growing. MENY has already for a number of years tested a fixed grocery locker located outside its store at the Strømmen shopping centre. 

Convenient way to pick up groceries 

With StrongPoint as their supplier, MENY is now testing another type of lockers, mobile click & collect grocery lockers. 

“We want to test new alternative pickup solutions for online orders. We are currently testing two mobile click & collect grocery lockers at Ramstadsletta and Haslum in Bærum,” says Knut Nyløkken, e-commerce manager MENY. 

The click & collect grocery lockers have been in operation since November 2020. These are grocery lockers that are placed on a trailer. The advantages of mobile click & collect grocery lockers are that they do not need a building permit and can easily be placed at a convenient location for customers to pick up the groceries they have ordered online. It could be that they are going to their cottage, are travelling somewhere or just on their way home.  

“When people are on the go, this is a very practical way to pick up their order. It takes 20 seconds to enter the order code and retrieve the bags from the locker. It is extremely efficient,” Nyløkken says with satisfaction. 

For orders under NOK 1,000, the price is NOK 49, but it is free if the order is larger. 

The size of the time slots for locker pick-up or home delivery determines how convenient it is for customers. A window of several hours for a locker pick-up means greater flexibility than, for example, a window of only one hour for home delivery. 

Temperature requirements 

For MENY, it is crucial that they can be sure the grocery lockers meet temperature regulations. 

“The goods must be stored in the right way, and they must meet the regulations”, says Nyløkken. 

After three months of operation, MENY is satisfied. They have gained many new customers through online orders, the mobile click & collect grocery lockers are used every day and are always fully booked, which shows that customers also appreciate the alternative way of picking up their groceries. 

Providing more pickup slots  

Currently, MENY only offers one pickup slot for the mobile grocery lockers: from 3 pm to 11 pm in the evening. 

“With only one delivery slot, the efficiency is still not optimal,” Nyløkken acknowledges. 

Because of the COVID-19 lockdown in place locally, many people are having home office. He believes that the use of the grocery lockers will increase when people start going to the office again, and then MENY will provide more pickup slots. 

First, they will open more pickup slots on the two mobile grocery lockers they already have, initially a morning slot. If the response from customers is as expected, MENY will use more mobile grocery lockers in the future. 

Which delivery option does customers prefer? 

The most popular delivery option at MENY is home delivery. An important question is how many customers in the future will prefer pick-up and how many prefer home delivery. 

The costs for MENY and the price for the customer factor into the equation. 

If several customers who are to have goods delivered live in the same area, the delivery cost per order will be lower for the grocery retailer. MENY has settled on a fixed price for home delivery: NOK 59. Currently, the cost is subsidized as the real cost of delivery is higher. 

“The competitive situation slows down what price can be set. We believe that we must pay, but we believe the price will be higher in the long run. Logistics and transport are extremely important. It’s about how many drops we get from a single truck, and how big it is. How many customers live close to each other is a big factor too. Then the unit cost could fall to below to the delivery price we charge,” says Nyløkken. 

In cities 

It is in the cities that home delivery of groceries is most relevant in Norway. The Norwegian geography dictates that. In the cities outside Oslo, MENY leads the way. 

“We appreciate being No. 1 in cities outside Oslo, because it is never easy to come in as No. 2.” 

Although MENY has competition in the online shopping space in Oslo, it does not have it in other cities, and they have the same prices for food all over the country. 

“Customers expect us to have equal prices,” says Nyløkken. 

Popular with young people 

Customers have gotten used to picking up packages in lockers and will do the same when it comes to groceries. 

“We will come after the Swedes, in the same way as we are a few years behind in online shopping of groceries in general,” says the online shopping manager. 

In Norway, we have a very high number of grocery stores in relation to the population. On average, we buy groceries 3.4 times a week, far more often than in other European countries. 

“If we get used to shopping only once a week, online shopping will be more favourable. It is 30-40 year olds who will use this the most,” says Nyløkken. 

Article originally posted here: https://retailmagasinet.no/henteskap-meny-strongpoint/tester-mobile-henteskap–praktisk-for-kundene/684239