Snappy Shopper head of B2B marketing Dael Links shares his thoughts on the size of the home delivery opportunity for convenience retailers and his top tips to help them achieve delivered success.
To get things started, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at Snappy Shopper?
Sure. I joined in May of last year as the Head of B2B Marketing. Prior to taking the role, I followed Snappy’s journey from inception and became really excited about aligning with forward thinking people – internally and externally. The role covers so many different aspects across the business, but my team’s main focus is to acquire new retailers and to then engage them to produce the results we know they can deliver via Snappy Shopper.
How big is the home delivery opportunity for local retailers?
Huge! The obvious impact of this uptick in consumer engagement in the online channel has been a rapid acceleration in sales, with all online grocery sales growing by 75.2% in 2020 to reach £22.3bn and account for a record 11.4% of all grocery sales.
The January 2021 lockdown and slow roadmap out of the peak of the pandemic will give further opportunities for the online channel to capitalise, and this prolonged period of heightened demand will leave a legacy impact, with the market expected to be £4.9bn bigger in 2025 than our pre-pandemic expectations.
How has the easing of Covid restrictions affected home delivery?
In short, it hasn’t. Covid brought about a trend that will remain as restrictions completely ease. Post lockdown, the demand for home delivery and the desire to shop locally is greater than ever, but we believe the increasing number of anonymous dark stores is a threat to the local high street and convenience stores in particular.
Snappy Shopper’s mission is to ensure that retailers are educated about the benefits of an online presence and how to grow their customer base by developing an omnichannel business, using its technology.
What are the secrets to home delivery success?
We see consistent trends across the platform so there is a recipe for success. Firstly, a retailer’s menu and range is so important. We strongly advise a great product range and to minimise substitutions, but if you do come across the need to, always advise the customer before delivery. Making your menu attractive is a vital pillar.
Another key area to success is making each delivery count; we encourage retailers to always deliver on time and to use that delivery to build rapport. Range and delivery are two operational points that we see successful retailers get right time and time again. From a marketing perspective it’s all about strong and powerful branding inside and outside the shop – you’ve got to be visual! In addition to that, we see the successful retailers working social media to their advantage – posting regular content that’s relevant to the local community.
How has Snappy Shopper developed over the last few years?
Exponentially and it’s evident when you take the numbers in to consideration. Between December 2020 and December 2021, the number of stores partnered with Snappy increased by 88% and the headcount at Snappy Shopper increased by 314%. Numbers aside, our product keeps on developing but our mission remains the same; empower local retailers to compete effectively in this fast-growing home delivery market by enabling them to offer a great delivery service in their community.
The product is based on genuine partnerships with retailers and the principle of mutual benefit. It therefore evolves to suit their needs thus ensuring retail partners have access to industry leading technology every step of the way. It is this flexibility, commitment to service, and also commission structure, that differentiates us from the competition.
What would you say to retailers who are considering launching a home delivery service for the first time?
Do it! Simply, retailers cannot ignore their customer’s demands and the increasing trend for online shopping. Public opinion aside, being able to add incremental sales to your turnover with little additional overhead makes complete business sense – the average sales of the top 20 stores in the 12 months to June 2021 is in excess of £500,000.
