We believe that: young professionals will use grocery delivery services.
To verify that we will: ask young professionals about their main priorities when grocery shopping and how well grocery delivery vs. in-store shopping fit into those goals. We will ask interviewees to rate their main concerns when grocery shopping, as well as how well grocery delivery and in-store shopping achieve those concerns. We will also provide broader room for respondents to share more qualitative thoughts about their main grocery shopping concerns and ideal grocery methods. The starting framework for questions include:
- What are your main considerations when grocery shopping (e.g. efficiency, quality, price, convenience)? What are you trying to prioritize?
- On a scale of 1-7 from not very important to very important, how important are each of those concerns (the pre-listed ones and/or concerns of your own)?
- On a scale of 1-7 from not very well to very well, how well does grocery shopping in person achieve each of those goals?
- On a scale of 1-7 from not very well to very well, how well does grocery delivery achieve each of those goals?
We will measure: how well grocery delivery achieves top grocery shopping concerns. We will also assess what characteristics are most vital for successful grocery shopping, and how to achieve them in a delivery service.
We are right if: grocery delivery is able to achieve the top priorities for grocery shopping for young professionals. More broadly, grocery delivery services provide a viable pathway for the ideal grocery shopping experience.
We believe that: young professionals will use grocery delivery services.
We observed that: grocery delivery better achieves less important characteristics of grocery shopping compared to in-store shopping, while in-store shopping better achieves more important characteristics of grocery shopping compared to delivery shopping. Interestingly, the difference in achievement of in-person shopping compared to delivery shopping increased as the level of importance increased. In other words, as the rating of characteristic importance increased, the benefit of in-person shopping increased.
This spreadsheet captures the ranking of characteristics and how well in-person vs delivery grocery shopping achieves them.
We can understand more of these trends upon reflection of the interview notes and seeing which characteristics were deemed to be most important. All interviewees noted quality as an important characteristic, 6 out of the 9 interviewees noted price, and 7 out of 9 noted efficiency/convenience. The level of importance varied, but overall these 3 qualities were the most consistent and important determinants of the grocery shopping experience.
Grocery delivery achieved quality the worst. Most participants noted that delivered produce quality was often subpar and deterred them from utilizing grocery delivery. One interviewee stated: “If delivery could guarantee quality, I would be all in.”
Many participants often noted that grocery delivery had higher prices, often not worth the increased efficiency.
Finally, though efficiency was deemed important, participants were willing to trade efficiency for better prices and quality.
From that, we learned that: Quality is key to the grocery shopping experience! Young professionals distrust grocery delivery services. Being able to deliver high-quality goods, particularly produce, opens an opportunity to change the current landscape of grocery delivery.
Therefore, we will: utilize and bolster HarvestMingle’s current quality assurance practices for delivered produce. We will work with physical locations during our soft launch to ensure hand-picked, fresh, high-quality produce in our boxes. HarvestMingle has already set a high reputation for high-quality produce and customer service, and we will build upon this renown to challenge distrust around pre-selected grocery quality. Part of this process will entail further user testing and feedback in response to curated boxes to assess produce quality standards.
In building boxes in stores and in centralized warehouses, we will also offer competitive prices that do not need to compromise on efficiency.
Full interview notes:
Interviewee 1:
- Main considerations:
- Quality: 5
- Price: 5
- Efficiency: 3
- Price and quality are main concerns
- Doesn’t want prepared meals but does want cheap, high-quality meals
- Shopping in person:
- Quality: 5
- Price: 5
- Efficiency: 5
- Lack of car limits options
- Delivery:
- Quality: 3
- Price: 3
- Efficiency: 4
- More expensive
- Can’t pick out own produce- skeptical of the quality
Interviewee 2:
- Main considerations:
- Price per unit: 6
- Doesn’t want a massive amount (wants to be able to use all of it) while also having a lower price per item
- What looks good (packaging, nice product appearance): 5
- For example, would choose more fun-looking pasta over boring kinds
- Efficiency: 3
- Likes it when things are easy to find and get
- Grocery shopping is limited by the time to do so
- Convenience influences which stores they prefer to go to.
- Price per unit: 6
- Grocery shopping in person:
- Considering PPU: 6
- Assessing visual quantities: 6
- Efficiency: 3
- Depending on the store, in-person shopping achieves these goals goals
- But harder to go in-store and not as efficient
- Likes to be able to see and feel the products and explore the aisles
- Stores have PPUs that are easy to refer to
- Delivery:
- Considering PPU: 6
- Assessing visual quantities: 2
- Efficiency: 6
- Much more efficient!
- But, much higher chance of people getting different things than are wanted
- Can’t inspect individual objects
- Worse price-wise, delivery fees are more than gas (for driving to the store)
Interviewee 3:
- Main considerations:
- Price: 5
- Quality: 6
- Especially important for produce!
- Quantity: 4
- Being able to choose an amount that they can get through before it starts going bad
- Efficiency: 2
- Best to get shopping done in one location, rather than having to go to multiple stores
- This isn’t always possible with different ingredients and dishes
- In-person:
- Price: 5
- Quality: 5
- Quantity: 5
- Efficiency: 2
- Delivery:
- Price: 3
- Quality: 3
- Quantity: 4
- Efficiency: 5
- Main concern is quality, particularly when selecting produce
- Doesn’t like having limited role in picking substitution
Interviewee 4:
- Main considerations:
- Speed and efficiency: 5
- Quality: 7
- Price: 6
- In-person:
- Efficiency: 2
- Quality: 6
- Price: 4
- Grocery shopping can be fun with a friend!
- Grocery delivery:
- Efficiency: 5
- Can take more time if they forget to buy something
- Quality: 2
- Always gets bad produce
- “If delivery could guarantee quality, I would be all in.”
- Price: 5
- Can compare prices but has to pay for delivery and tip
- Efficiency: 5
Interviewee 5:
- Main considerations:
- Quality: 5
- Convenience: 4
- Can’t really predict work schedules, needs to squeeze in grocery shopping time
- In-person:
- Quality: 5
- Convenience: 3
- Needs good quality but picking items takes time
- Grocery shopping schedule just depends on the week
- Grocery delivery
- Quality: 4
- Convenience: 5
- Fast and doesn’t have to do a lot of the physical work
- Quality varies a lot, depends on shopper and on where items are being ordered from
Interviewee 6:
- Main considerations:
- Convenience: 5
- Quality: 5
- Needs to know that items are reliable
- Busy and has to drive far to/from work, so doesn’t have a lot of time to grocery shop
- In-person:
- Convenience: 3
- Quality: 6
- Finds it annoying to have to take a detour to go to the supermarket during the week, doesn’t like crowds during the weekend
- Grocery delivery:
- Convenience: 5
- Has to respond actively to shopper on grocery delivery platforms like Instacart
- Quality 4:
- Feels like they often don’t have a lot of choice and just resigns to having worse quality produce when delievered
- Convenience: 5
Interviewee 7:
- Main considerations:
- Quality: 6
- Price: 7
- Efficiency: 3
- Doesn’t generally go into a grocery store knowing what they want to make, that is determined the quality/price of the goods inside
- Price is the most important as someone transitioning from grad student to young professional
- Willing to skimp more on quality for price
- Willing to go through inefficiency for lower prices
- In-person:
- Price: 5
- Efficiency: 3
- Quality: 6
- Being in person and making physical contact is important to be able to see/know what is to be consumed
- Some markets have good prices but don’t have the right products (Trader Joes)
- Grocery delivery:
- Quality: 3
- Price: 4
- Efficiency: 4
- Doesn’t trust quality of goods
Interviewee 8:
- Main considerations:
- Engagement: 5
- Price: 6
- Quality: 5
- Wants to enjoy the process of grocery shopping as a break
- In-person:
- Engagement: 7
- Price: 4
- Quality: 6
- Can quality control in-store
- Bay Area groceries just too expensive
- Wants to be able to go to the stores they want to, even if they are farther
- Likes to make decision trade-offs about price/quality in-store
- Grocery delivery:
- Engagement: 4
- Price: 2
- Quality: 3
- Annoying to have to pay for fees
- Nice when Instacart shoppers care, but that’s not always. Would consider having a ‘personal shopper’ type situation
- Online shopping can be fun but is just less engaging
Interviewee 9:
- Main considerations:
- Efficiency: 5
- Quality: 5
- Schedule varies week by week, so has more flexibility to buy groceries and meal prep
- In-person:
- Efficiency: 2
- Quality: 4
- Hassle to get to the good grocery stores on public transportation and often has to Uber back
- Grocery delivery:
- Efficiency: 6
- Quality: 4
- Won’t order as much produce when doing grocery delivery, doesn’t trust delivery quality
