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Why grocers are switching to mobile picking
Customers interact with your brand on many levels—from browsing your store’s aisles in person to ordering online and having groceries delivered. Every interaction contributes to how they feel about your business.
Making operations more efficient is crucial to your omnichannel success. Not only does it contribute to a consistent and seamless customer experience, but it can also help you cut costs and improve your bottom line.
Grocery retailers can improve efficiency and enhance the customer experience by boosting the rate and accuracy of order picking. The key to improving picking efficiency? Mobile picking.
Mobile picking: what it is and how it works
Mobile picking allows shoppers to take a mobile device into the aisles to fulfill orders, whether it’s a store-owned device or one provided by Uber Eats. A mobile device offers an enhanced shopping experience by providing flexibility, access to new features, real-time updates, and so much more.
Why go mobile?
Lessen the hassle of managing orders manually
Mobile picking allows smoother shopping to help improve the quality of orders for customers and the shopping experience for employees. In contrast, managing orders from stationary devices such as tablets or monitors can be cumbersome and time-consuming.
A tablet or monitor can’t move with employees as they pick orders, so they can’t make updates or check for replacements in real time. This results in using printed shopping lists to manually check off items and waiting until the end of shopping to mark items found or out of stock.
Prevent difficult item replacements
Research shows that as much as 66% of customers (and 84% of Gen Z) shopping online for groceries frequently find that the item they want is out of stock. The good news is that 66% of all customers are willing to accept substitutes for out-of-stock items—and up to 56% always accept them.*
But item replacements are a challenge when employees are working with a stationary device, because they can’t see recommendations as they shop. This wastes valuable time on the clock and can lead to items going unreplaced.
The unfortunate result is higher picking time, which can contribute to increased picking costs, missed sales, and unhappy customers.
3 benefits of switching to mobile picking
Boost efficiency with barcode scanning
With just a quick barcode scan from a mobile device, employees can mark an item as found. This makes shopping easier and more efficient, helping you get more orders out faster. Barcode scanning also increases order accuracy by ensuring that the correct items are selected once scanned.
Simplify replacements and improve the customer experience
Mobile picking makes offering replacements for out-of-stock items easier than ever before. Employees can easily make replacement suggestions while they’re shopping, device in hand—improving fulfillment and creating a better customer experience by delivering more complete orders.
Expand shopper education
Using a mobile device for picking also makes training materials more easily accessible for shoppers. Through their own mobile device, they can have product information, learning materials, and best practices at their fingertips.
Uber Eats Orders: now available on mobile
The Uber Eats Orders app is now on mobile, with a redesigned experience to help improve your operations and efficiency—and, ultimately, your bottom line.
Tips for mobile picking with the Orders app
Scan with ease: With just a quick barcode scan, shoppers can now mark an item as found—helping to improve picking speed and accuracy. Shoppers should scan all items that contain a barcode.
Replace items on the fly: Make sure replacement options are always offered to the customer when an item isn’t available. With the mobile Orders app, shoppers can make item suggestions in real time and track the customer’s preferences or response.
Avoid duplicates: Be sure that shoppers are clear about which orders they’re assigned to—always check that your team isn’t shopping for a duplicate order.
Get educational resources: Have your employees read the how-to guides found in the Help section of the Uber Eats Orders app.
Stay up to date: Check your notifications and inbox to keep current on the latest features, resources, and updates.
Working with Uber Eats can help you reach more online shoppers and equip you with tools to meet their needs. Get additional information about growing your grocery business with Uber Eats.
*From an Uber and Edelman survey of 5,754 people across 16 global markets in 4 major regions, March 2023.
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