Keep them coming back for more: Customer retention on the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP)

Customer retention is a buzz word for a reason. Establishing loyalty in the hyper-competitive online grocery sector is no easy feat. There are changing shopper preferences to consider and an ever-revolving door of new players—from large-scale enterprises to boutique rapid delivery services.

But loyalty benefits both the customer and the retailer. Think about any worthwhile relationship. The deeper the connection, the more aligned the giver’s behaviour will be to the recipient’s needs.

This same logic can be applied to customers, as frequent shoppers are rewarded for their loyalty with tailored recommendations and personalised promotions. This, in turn, helps the retailer, who can use frequent shopper data to detect patterns and habits to inform future range and promotional strategies.  

On The Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) – an ecommerce, logistics and fulfilment solution designed specifically for online grocery - retailers have access to a wealth of customer data. When this intelligence is coupled with the efficiencies of the interconnected platform, customer retention is supercharged.

Working with leading online grocery retailers around the world, we’ve observed first-hand how OSP keeps customers coming back for more through the freshest products, flexible range and delivery options, and intelligence-driven personalisation features.

Offer customers the freshest products

A challenge faced by many online grocers is how to deliver high quality products, accurately and on time.

OSP offers market-leading freshness. Our fulfilment solutions are programmed to pick the highest-quality items with the longest lead times, giving customers the flexibility to consume items when and how they want to. We also provide customers with real-time information on how long each product is guaranteed to last on arrival, so they can better plan their meals and avoid food waste at home.

The intelligence that underpins the whole OSP system as supply chain and fulfilment are in constant communication. The simple act of selecting an item on a webshop sparks millions of calculations in the back-end, accurately identifying items that are currently in stock at the picking site, as well as what can be ordered in time to make the delivery. This helps to maximise quality, ensuring customers receive the freshest products in every delivery.

Give customers the ability to choose

To keep customers from straying there needs to be an incentive to stick. The simplest and most important incentive retailers can offer is choice, which gives customers the power to shape their own grocery experiences.

On OSP, we’ve embedded choice into the end-to-end online grocery journey in many different ways.

Customers can choose from an ever-growing range of items, from everyday staples to niche favourites, and even more diverse categories like clothing, homeware and general merchandise. On OSP retailers can process over 50K SKUs from just one site. This sheer volume means every flavour, fad and whim can be catered to, addressing customer needs and future-proofing retail offerings at the same time. If customers can fulfil every need in one single shop this will help to keep competitors at bay, as there is no need for them to shop elsewhere. Similarly, if retailers can stock a diverse range of products, they can maintain dominance, ensuring relevance even as customer preferences shift.    

Choice can also be incorporated into delivery methods. Delivery needs to feel easy and frictionless for customers to stick. On OSP customers can choose from a range of options, from home delivery to third-party couriers, click-and-collect and remote collection, for example, lockers. Slot availability is also provided by the hour, allowing customers the flexibility to plan their slot around their day. By offering an option to suit every lifestyle, retailers can meet customers where they want and retain them even if their preferences change.

Deliver a highly personalised experience

By anticipating customers’ needs before they’re even aware of them, retailers can show they know their customers better than they know themselves.

OSP’s intelligence helps retailers to dive deeper into customer purchasing history to surprise and delight them with a range of personalised recommendations, offers and even free gifts to reward loyalty.

When embarking on personalisation, there are a variety of features to choose from, from a bespoke checkout walk that features coupons on favourite products to a ‘Have you run out?’ section consisting of items that were previously bought by the customer but may have been forgotten. This increases the likelihood of satisfaction on the customer’s behalf and the likelihood of upselling on the retailer’s side.

Additional personalisation methods include ‘smart shop’, where customers can fill an entire basket in seconds by auto-selecting previous baskets and ‘recurring orders’. For recurring orders, customers don’t even need to visit the webshop, they can simply opt to repeat orders at a frequency of their choice.  The ease of these processes will help incentivise customers to come back again, as it reduces the friction of grocery shopping by turning it into a simple, repeatable activity that can be fit into any day.

At Ocado Group, our teams are dedicated to improving retention rates for the global grocery retailers on OSP. We are currently focusing on driving positive customer experiences through the loyalty scheme, Delivery Pass. This enables retailers to offer savings and benefits to customers while driving retention uplift and increased average order frequency.

To discover more ways to aid retention and deliver unbeatable customer experiences, visit our ecommerce and customer fulfilment pages.