{"id":454942,"date":"2021-08-24T05:03:19","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T12:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=wherenext&p=454942"},"modified":"2024-05-10T05:30:46","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T12:30:46","slug":"office-grocery-delivery","status":"publish","type":"wherenext","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/office-grocery-delivery","title":{"rendered":"Delivery Innovation: Groceries at the Office"},"author":501,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1001,369792,365242],"tags":[472211,406632,338542,238001],"department":[488812],"wherenext-category":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-454942","wherenext","type-wherenext","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commercial","category-location-intelligence","category-retail","tag-delivery","tag-direct-to-consumer","tag-route-optimization","tag-site-selection","department-emerging-technologies"],"acf":{"short_description":"With companies under pressure to deliver everything and anything to consumers, supermarkets begin carting groceries to the office.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"With some corporate leaders slowly\u00a0nudging professionals back to the office,\u00a0innovative grocers\u00a0are\u00a0looking at\u00a0ways to\u00a0bring the store to\u00a0them. It\u2019s all to anticipate the needs of those who have grown accustomed to convenient shopping from home, a trend that began prior to the pandemic and has accelerated since.\r\n\r\nOffice grocery delivery involves carting food to temperature-controlled lockers<\/a> positioned at office parks or inside office buildings. Lowes Foods, which has markets in\u00a0the US South, announced in mid-June it\u00a0would test the delivery method<\/a> at a North Carolina office. Deliveries are made three times a week\u00a0and the grocer texts or emails office workers when groceries are ready for pickup."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Left","content":"Article snapshot:<\/strong> As the grocery sector evolves to address changing shopping habits, industry innovators are installing lockers at offices to deliver fresh groceries to professionals. Location intelligence will be key to determining where to do so and how to keep costs down.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"With plans to expand office grocery delivery in that state as well as South Carolina, Lowes\u2019 effort to reach customers where they are is part of a larger industry goal. Forrester\u00a0expects online sales of\u00a0food and beverages to grow the fastest of any internet retail\u00a0category\u201430 percent annually between 2019 and 2024\u2014and to account for 17 percent of all e-commerce sales by 2024.\u00a0<\/a>To make office grocery deliveries successful, grocers will need to make new use of the location intelligence<\/a> they and other retailers have long used when analyzing the potential for new stores<\/a>.\r\n\r\nDuring the COVID pandemic,\u00a0forward-thinking retailers used a geographic information system (GIS) to\u00a0manage delivery and pickup\u00a0orders. Yet, despite delivery\u2019s popularity with consumers, companies are still struggling to make it profitable\u2014just ask any of the brands delivering hot food to doorsteps<\/a>.\r\n\r\nGeographic\u00a0thinking will be essential to making the endeavor convenient for customers and profitable for grocers.\r\n\r\nWith GIS technology<\/a>, business planners can discern which offices have enough workers who are likely to become delivery customers. Once a supermarket chooses its office locker locations, the technology can suggest the best distribution routes for food, while providing operational awareness about when and how the lockers are being used.\u00a0A GIS dashboard can even alert managers to issues related to temperature control or other anomalies.\r\n\r\nWhile the trend of office grocery delivery is new, the primary methods enabling it are not. GIS-based site selection<\/a> and delivery execution are core to any retail expansion. Such techniques can uncover a reliable network of customers and provide a plan for getting goods to them, efficiently and profitably.\r\n