The Technological Evolution of Grocery Shopping.

by Naomi Smith

Brian Palmer with a robot designed for Ocado

30 years ago everybody bought their food in relatively the same way; some with frequent visits to a local convenience store, others perhaps a weekly shop to a larger and further away supermarket. Ultimately, the variation in consumer behaviour was limited now, however, grocery shopping has
transformed and this is mostly down to the introduction of e-commerce and technological advancement. 

Tesco was the first supermarket to start online sales in 1996 and later the exclusively online retailer, Ocado launched in 2000, beginning trade with Waitrose in 2002. E-commerce began to transform the way many consumers purchased their groceries. Convenience was the main focus of online sales, initiated by Tesco in 1996 with all other main retailers introducing e-commerce to remain competitive against their rival. Social trends were changing moving into the 21st century with an increasing number of households having two full-time working parents, thus time for other activities such as supermarket shopping became limited. By having goods home delivered consumers are able to easily complete a weekly shop without leaving the house. 

Eventually, online supermarket shopping has become ‘the standard’ with the average weekly online sales of grocery retailers having reached £141.9 m. The concept of online supermarket shopping was no longer innovative and new and consumers began demanding greater benefits from their supermarkets like faster delivery times and now most retailers offer same-day delivery, dependent on circumstances. 

Online grocery retailer Ocado realised that in order to compete with its rivals it needed to innovate, using technology, to offer faster delivery times. With Waitrose, Ocado started by purchasing Waitrose products and collecting them from stores then transporting them directly to consumers.
This was effective and new at the time but the process was timely, in 2012 Ocado strategised to make its operation more efficient, of course, a speedier service not only presents it the business as more attractive to the consumer, compared with competition but also helps lower the costs of the business, essential in a saturated market where heavy price competition is present.

Ocado partnered with Tharsus and the businesses started designing robotic technology to help speed up its processes. The robots would move around a warehouse collecting different goods in accordance with a specific customer’s order. Travelling at 4m per second, the robots were able to complete the task far quicker than humans and the overall process was sped up. The Tharsus Ocado robots have been extremely successful since the first robotically-picked order which was delivered in 2016, at the time ‘Ten times faster than anyone else’s’.
By developing their own technology Ocado had become a ‘tech-owner’ and it was able to sell its technology to other supermarkets and retailers; Ocado have been able to sell such technology to the likes of Groupe Casino in France, Sobeys in Canada and US retail business Kroger. Such innovation has changed the way people buy their goods forever, and the speed at which they expect this to happen. 

https://www.tharsus.co.uk/case-studies/ocado

https://www.statista.com/topics/3144/online-grocery-shopping-in-the-united-kingdom/