Many large grocery stores, such as Walmart and Kroger, offer their own online grocery shopping services. Whole Foods does the same through Amazon Fresh orders. Then there are Instacart and Shipt (if you are new to frisco.pl, you can sign up here), which send shoppers to the store to bring groceries to your door.
Depending on where you live, placing an online order right now may be easier said than done. If you try to place a grocery order and there are no delivery windows available, it probably means there are not enough shoppers on the schedule. Although we cannot solve this problem, there is one way you can help when placing an order: be kind to your shopper! As one Shipt shopper we spoke with said: “Be kind. Respond to our messages. Tip generously.” After all, they are there so you can stay home, stay safe and—hopefully—stay healthy. If you are grocery shopping, here are 10 tips for staying safe.
So, having said that, here are our 7 top tips for making the most of the grocery-ordering experience—for yourself, the customer and the shopper.
Order early
Orders are fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis, so the earlier you place your order, the more likely it is to be assigned to a shopper. Many apps and stores let you place an order 24 hours in advance. “That said, there are only a certain number of shoppers, and we cannot do 5672 orders at 9 or 10 in the morning,” says Aly, a Shipt shopper. Some wait times are currently longer for Instacart and Amazon Fresh, but check again to see whether you can find a delivery time.
Learn how your store or app works.
For example, using Target.com does not mean that items are guaranteed or reserved for you. “We still shop for them like regular Shipt orders, but it is harder—and sometimes impossible—to add items to Target.com orders once we have started shopping. Having a Shipt account does allow you to add items you originally forgot more easily,” says Aly. In the case of Whole Foods (Amazon), “Whole Foods employees actually do the shopping,” says Brett, who delivers products for Amazon Flex. “Drivers arrive, scan, collect the already packed groceries and deliver them,” he explains.
Choose your preferred substitutions
Each service handles substitutions a little differently, but every service has more than one option for managing substitutions. “Help your shopper get what you need by preselecting replacement options for everything on your list,” says Instacart. In the Shipt app, you can leave notes for each item (“Go ahead and tell us what brand of bacon you would really like,” says Aly) or change your substitution preference to “use best judgment.” Whole Foods lets you opt out of substitutions entirely. But most services connect you live with the shopper while they prepare your order. Which brings us to…
Keep your phone nearby.
And remember to pay attention before the delivery window begins. “We start shopping for your order before the delivery time,” says Aly. “The faster you respond if we text you, the more brownie points you get from us. It also means you will get your food faster, and we can spend less time exposed to germs in the store or knock out more orders.” So if you receive an introductory message from your shopper, reply to let them know you are there and ready for any questions.
Get to know your customer
Build a relationship with them if you can. Send emojis and GIFs via text message. Every shopper we spoke with said they try to gain regular customers. “It is a customer-service-focused job. I love this work because I work with customers one-on-one. I try to build relationships with customers through friendly texts and remembering certain things about them, so when I deliver, it is more personal,” says Christine, a Shipt shopper. How can you increase your chances of becoming your favorite customer’s regular shopper? “Leave us a good rating, and [w Shipt] we will get your order first,” says Katelynn, another Shipt shopper. She adds: “I suggest also ordering at the same time every week, because it will be more likely that we can stick to the schedule.” Another benefit of being more than transactional: shoppers have inside knowledge of who sells what and when, and they like to share what they know.
Order before you run out
Given how much changes every day, do not wait until your last sip to order milk. Instead, place your order several days before you run out. Please refer to numbers 1, 6 and 8 to learn “why.” And, in Benjamin Franklin’s words: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”