Online grocer Peapod goes multi-channel with Stop & Shop and Giant Food
After years of focusing only on the online experience, Peapod LLC, a business unit of global grocer and food service company Royal Ahold, is going multi-channel.
Peapod is the still one of the largest online grocers – the company’s online web sales grew by about 20% in 2006 and Peapod serves Internet food buyers in 18 regional markets.
But a big push for Peapod, No. 45 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, in the past year has been developing new web tools and programs that integrate Peapod more closely with two other Royal Ahold subsidiaries: Stop & Shop and Giant Food Inc.
In about 15 regional markets, Peapod shoppers now can click on Peapod.com and see their online ordering history and a 12-week history of their offline purchases at nearby Stop & Shop and Giant Food stores.
The updated shopping list features items as they are displayed in a Giant or Stop & Shop store and give customers the option of completing an online order for delivery or printing the list and taking it to the grocery store on their next shopping trip. “The new tools make the purchasing experience more seamless for the customer,” says Peapod senior vice president of marketing and customer service Mike Brennan. “They can use Peapod.com to keep a running shopping list of their purchases, shop online or offline and see where the items are kept in each aisle.”
To build more multi-channel synergy with grocery shoppers, Peapod now also offers shoppers gift cards that can be ordered and redeemed online or in most Stop & Shop and Giant food stores.
“What we are doing with these programs is trying to help customers shop smarter and faster,” says Brennan. “Grocery shopping is a list-intensive endeavor.”
The move into more multi-channel marketing and merchandising is paying off for Peapod. Among repeat shoppers, Peapod’s conversion rate is running at about five times higher than before the integration of the updated shopping list functions.
Peapod also is adding more nutritional content and tools that will help customers shop more effectively, says Brennan. For instance, Peapod shoppers will soon be able to search and shop by very specific terms such as “gluten-free” products.
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