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Increasing trend of online grocery shopping

In today’s rapidly changing life, people have become accustomed to ordering groceries online. Especially Quick Commerce apps such as Swigy Instamart, Blinkit, and Jepto have made it so simple that now fresh fruits, vegetables and other essential commodities are found in 10 minutes sitting at home. However, a major problem of this facility is that it is no longer cheap.

Hidden charge: Causes for increase in expenses

Whenever a small order is made, several additional charges are added to it. These include handling fees, delivery charge, GST, small cart fee, rain fees on rain delivery and traffic or high demand fees at the time of high demand. All these small charges together sometimes increase the total expenditure by Rs 50. Customers are now feeling that online shopping is convenient, but has also become expensive. Therefore, they are starting to buy goods from the shop and compare online prices to better manage their expenses.

Online apps prices: more than the real price

Despite getting free coupons several times on apps like Jepto, the price of the product exceeds its actual price. For example, if the price of an item is Rs 750 and a free cash coupon of Rs 125 is imposed on it, the price should be Rs 625. But after adding the handling charge, the final rate reaches Rs 773. Questions are being raised on the issue on social media as to why prices are more than the real price even after the coupon.

Reputation towards local vendors

Economics Times interacted with Urvashi Sharma of Delhi, who said that they now prefer to buy fruits and vegetables from local vendors, as the prices there are lower to Rs 30-40. Some items such as tomatoes and peas look cheap online, but when adding handling and delivery charges, prices become almost equal.

New order strategies and companies’ challenges

Earlier people used to make small orders repeatedly with Quick Commerce apps, but now they have started ordering more items simultaneously so that the additional charge can be avoided again and again. This strategy is beneficial for customers, but is proving harmful for companies as it affects the total order value and their stock stays for a long time.

Companies solutions: Max saver plan

According to Satish Meena, advisor to market research firm Datam Intelligence, companies are now providing subscriptions and packages like ‘Plan Max Savor’ to customers so that buyers can find prices more economical and they can avoid expensive charge repeatedly.