For about 20 years, the well-known Greek supermarket chain Sklavenitis has been under active development.
This was the case until 2020. Because three years and a pandemic later, the leading retailer not only conducts electronic activities, but a few days ago also piloted the “q” (“quickly” – quickly) service. “Speed Commerce” the next stage of services after electronic Internet sales, begins to develop when “intensity of sales” is required. And who is more agile (faster) – he becomes the leader.
New Sklavenitis Express servicemanaged through efood, allows you to make purchases on the Internet, presenting a catalog with 2500 codes for product names. Delivery is carried out within 40-60 minutes.
How much is shipping from the online store
It should be noted that Sklavenitis Express delivery is carried out through the “delivered by efood” service by efood drivers from Monday to Friday from 09.00 to 21.00 and on Saturday from 09.00 to 19.00. The new service only serves the northeastern suburbs of Attica Prefecture. In particular, areas that are very close to the center of the Gerakas region. The minimum order is 10 euros and the order fee is 2.5 euros. As of today, the estimated delivery time for Sklavenitis orders via efood is 4-7 hours for anyone ordering before 4:00 pm, and for orders after 4:00 pm, next business day delivery.
This commercial service was previously used by a supermarket chain MyMarket, launched a new pilot service Speedy in early 2023 for fast delivery, up to an hour, with no catalog restrictions. The consumer can order up to 25 codes with no quantity limit per code, subject to a flat €3 transport fee, no minimum order limit and no distance limit.
The service is currently being piloted in Maroussi, Agia Paraskevi, Agia Sophia-Piraeus, Drapetsona, Metaxourgio, Nea Smyrni, Heraklion (Athens), Kifisia, Vrilissia, Glyfada, Agia Varvara, Ilion, Haidari, Renti, Ag. Dimitrios, pl. Kolyatsu, Olympic village, Vari and Chalandri.
The answer to the question of why the big retail players are rushing into the battle for fast commerce at their own expense, even when competing with the big electronic marketplaces and small retailers, who also claim a piece of the same “pie”, lies in the turnover of a small but promising electronic shopping cart, as well as in the preferences of generation Z and millennials.
Young consumers prefer to shop on platforms that supermarkets cooperate with, and less often in the online stores of the chains themselves. This is because platforms deliver within an hour or less.
Everything is getting more expensive
Nevertheless the rapid growth of online sales, the digital shopping channel of supermarket goods, after the pandemic shows that the cost of this proposal is becoming a “thorn” in the profitability of networks. And this is because no business profits from online sales alone.
Thus the first step to raise rates and provide free shipping only for very large orders over 100 euros was taken by Sklavenitis, which announced from Monday that the fee for purchases up to 30 euros is now 5 euros, for purchases over 30 euros and up to 100 euros the fee will be 2.50 euros, and orders over 100 euros will not incur transport costs for the customer.
“We are looking into it,” is how the supermarket chain responded. Masoutis to the question will they charge for shipping. masoutis- the chain that was the last to join and had free shipping on orders in its online store for purchases of 40 euros and above.
AB Vassilopoulos applies a shipping fee of EUR 2 for orders between EUR 25 and EUR 45, and for orders of EUR 45 and above, there is no additional delivery charge for products. However, it should be noted that home delivery is only available for orders over 25 euros, and the “click and collect” service is available for orders over 15 euros.
According to the calculations of organized retail managers, in order for the process of product distribution to be profitable for chains, the commission fee must be at least 10% of the total cost of each order. It should be noted that shipping and distribution fees are standard practice in supermarkets in both America and Europe and England, where an annual subscription model is used, which most often includes free shipping on a weekly basis.
Turnover in the first half amounted to 153 million euros
In the first half of 2023, turnover growth electronic supermarkets was 15%, to 153 million euros in retail prices including VAT, but excluding Q-Commerce players with their own warehouses, such as Box, eFood Market, Instashop, Pop Market, Rabbit & Wolt Market, which are constantly gaining share in the Greek market.
In particular, the turnover of e-supermarkets measured by Convert Group using the eRetal audit panel was 130 million euros in the same period and corresponds to 85% of the total turnover of e-supermarkets.
The increase in the turnover of e-supermarkets is mainly due to rising inflation, as the average price per product increased by 9% in the first half of the year. However, an increase in orders by 11% was recorded.
As a reminder, the total turnover of e-supermarkets was set at 266 million euros in 2022 and 255 million euros in 2021.
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