Since last November, Lappeenranta resident Tiina Hietäjärvi has ordered her groceries online. She pays for a collection service to gather the items she has selected into bags and prepare them for pickup. At present, Hietäjärvi uses the service once a week or so.
“I’ve got three children and another on the way. But in addition to that, the service is nice and simple to use,” she says.
Her job in a commercial kitchen meant she was experienced with ordering food online, and so ordering food via a website service for her family was not an insurmountable effort. Even so, her use of the service will be tested once her fourth child is born.
“I already pick up the bags of food directly from the loading dock, so my children don’t even need to get out of the car,” she says.
Kesko retailers have a choice
At S Group’s major competitor, Kesko’s chain of K-stores, the individual owners are free to decide for themselves if they wish to offer an online service. Retailer Teppo Kylmä of the IsoKristiina K-supermarket in Lappeenranta has sold food for over a year online and his customer base is slowing expanding.
“Over the Midsummer holiday weekend, we had orders flying in after we advertised that we could deliver groceries to the end of a customer’s cottage pier, if necessary,” Kylmä says.
Typical customers attracted to the service are families with young children and elderly persons whose children or grandchildren order food on their behalf.
Steady growth
S Group reported a swell of 50 percent in online grocery sales in the first quarter of 2015, while Kesko has doubled the number of stores providing the service to 26. All of the S Group markets in the capital city area offer the service, as well as stores in the cities of Tampere, Lahti, Kuopio, Oulu and Iisalmi.
Sales recorded by individual stores are still marginal, but the S Group as a whole reported over 100,000 online grocery purchases last year, bringing in a total of ten million euros. Considered in total, this turnover is roughly equivalent to the annual sales of a medium-sized supermarket in the chain.