With many retail businesses still closed, hundreds of producers and store owners have gone online. Maev Martin talks to the founder and managing director of one of those businesses, Noel Smith of Fresh The Good Food Market, about how his operation has ‘pivoted’ to adjust to the new grocery retail landscape
Noel Smith announced the launch of his new online shopping website last month.
While the company had been planning a move into the online space, he concedes that Covid-19 “refocused our minds in terms of getting into the space more quickly to see if this would work for us. Without Covid-19 we might not have launched it for another 12 months. In March, I decided to speed up the process and the team and I worked tirelessly to action it and we have been amazed at the response.”
Apart from regular grocery products, Fresh had a range of other products that they wanted to put online, including gourmet and gifting products.
“When we went live, we started with 100 products and we now have over 500 products online due to the demand and the feedback we have been getting from customers,” he says.
“We have four refrigerated vans on the road, having started off with one in early March. We have the essential requirements for household and grocery products and then we added our wine, beer and spirits range, as well as baby care, a range of chilled products and dairy. Some of our gourmet products are up on the site and the build up to Easter was very strong for us and centred around the gifting of Easter eggs and other items, such as gifting parcels with wine, a candle set and chocolates.”
Repeat Business – And Attracting New Customers
While the online operation is still in its early days, the initial response has been overwhelmingly positive – a survey carried out in their fifth week of trading online showed that their repeat business was “anywhere between 45% and 50%,” and “that is from customers who have had their first experience of shopping online with Fresh”. What is even more re- assuring for Fresh is that they had not embarked on a major advertising push to promote the new service, although at the time of writing that is about to change. “Online is an area that we hope to develop further and, based on the business that we have done so far and the feedback we are getting, we plan to stay in the online space.”
What impact will the new online service have on the overall business? “I think peoples’ shopping habits will change due to Covid-19 so it will play a part in our business and in understanding how shoppers shop and what they require, but it won’t be a huge percentage of our business,” he says. However, Noel believes that it may become increasingly important for Fresh, and for food retailers in general, to be successful online. “It will strengthen the brand overall and where we operate in the market, and it will be an add on service for our existing customers, and will allow us to reach customers who do not visit our shop on a daily basis,” he says.
“What we are seeing with the data we have at the moment is that we are reaching customers who are not working in the areas in which our stores are located and customers who have not shopped in our stores before. Through our loyalty card scheme, we contacted our customers and made them aware that we were online, but I would estimate that anywhere between 15% and 25% of customers that are shopping online with us would not have shopped in Fresh before.”
Thinking Inside The Box
As well as expanding the Fresh business into the online space, Smith is also collaborating with Irish food producers and food service companies to broaden its range of services for consumers at this difficult time. “We have always worked with Irish brands such as Keoghs Crisps, Sheridan’s Cheesemongers, Delicious Foods,
Simply Fit Foods, Sisu Juice and Cali Cali - it is part of our DNA and we will continue to do that,” he says. “However, in recent times, the likes of Bretzel Bakery and the Firehouse Bakery have seen their sales fall off quite dramatically because foodservice would have been a huge part of their business, so they have looked at ways of packaging their bread so we can sell it.
The Rolling Donut is another business that we work with and we are continuing to supply their range, and our latest collaboration is with a restaurant called Asador|Prado, which is based in Ballsbridge and Clontarf in Dublin.
They have created a BBQ box meal kit for €49 and a deluxe BBQ meal kit for €75. Everything is prepared and packaged for the consumer to cook at home and we have partnered with them to bring their meal kits direct to peoples’ doors via our delivery service. All people have to do is add these to their grocery shop when they order from FreshOnline.ie.”
Impact On Fresh Estate
Apart from introducing new services, retailers around the country have had to re-configure their stores in response to the Covid-19 crisis and Fresh The Good Food Market is no different. “We have always been very conscious of the space in our stores and space is important to us with any stores that we design or refurbish,” he says.
“That approach has turned out to be an advantage for us and for our customers in the current climate – there is plenty of space in our aisles and at the checkout, so we are not over merchandised with products.
In terms of our fresh food counters, which aren’t trading at full capacity at the moment, the counters at Capital Dock are closed down and the IFSC is doing a morning service, while other stores are limited in terms of their range and trading hours.
Going forward, we will need to re-think how our fresh food counters operate as it is a huge part of our business. We may have to redesign these counters depending on the demographics and the location of the stores. I believe that the business will come back, but I’m not sure at what level that will be.”
Noel says that while some of Fresh The Good Food Market’s stores have increased their turnover, the current crisis has had a “huge impact” on their recently opened store at Capital Dock.
“We talked about closing the store in the early part of this crisis but I met with the staff and management and they felt that they could run it with a small number of staff that were willing to work, so we have kept it open and it is now being shopped by a lot of local people,” he says.
“It is not at the level that it would normally be, but we have kept it open to provide a service to the people living in that area – it is trading five days a week from 9am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, and customers have told us that they appreciate us keeping it open, but we will continue to review this and if the crisis continues much longer we may have to close it.”
Will offices in the city work at 40%, 50% or 60% of normal capacity? Will shift work become the norm for many offices as employers attempt to implement social distancing in the workplace?
“These and many other questions will need to be answered, and if these changes come in, that will impact our stores and the level of customers that come into them at certain times of the day,” says Noel. “We have to look at how our business responds to those challenges and work them into our business model, but we will innovate around it and see what we can offer.”
Protecting Staff And Customers
Like so many convenience store owners and major supermarket chains, Fresh The Good Food Market has introduced numerous changes in-store to protect its employees and customers.
“We have spent a significant amount of money on hand sanitisers and hand wipes, both for our staff and for our customers,” he says. “We have also had help along the way from BWG when it comes to keeping hygiene standards high in our stores. We were very quick to move on providing social distancing information in- store, and our stores feature information from the HSE on Covid-19. We have installed Perspex screens across our takeaway coffee counters and checkouts.”
Fresh The Good Food Market also has an audio message playing regularly, which reminds customers about social distancing requirements and other protocols, and they have taken the guidance from the HSE on board in terms of controlling the number of customers coming into our stores.
We have hand sanitisers and wipes for shopping baskets and trolleys at the front door and we also provide these items, along with gloves, for staff at the checkouts. At the moment it is up to individual staff members if they choose to wear a mask – maybe that will change and become a mandatory requirement by government, but for now we are providing face masks as an option to staff.”
A Team Effort
While staff at Fresh The Good Food Market were re-deployed from other areas of the business to develop their new online service, Smith says that the company had to lay off “around 60 staff” across its stores at Grand Canal Dock, Smithfield, Camden Street, Mayor Street in the IFSC, Belarmine in Stepaside, Capital Dock and Northern Cross. “Each location saw a temporary lay-off of staff across the group, mostly in our fresh food department,” he said.
“However, with the new online service taking off over the past few weeks, we were able to re- employ 10 of those staff. It is very hard to let staff go, even on a temporary basis, and we look forward to bringing them back at some point in the future," he adds.
"We are very appreciative of the staff that have remained working during this crisis, so we have been giving them small bonuses in the form of a top up on their in- store card to show our appreciation for the work they are doing, and the staff that we have laid off can still avail of their staff discount of 30% in-store. It has been a very difficult time for the whole country, but we have built up some great customer loyalty during this period."
Future Proofing
Smith believes that a “big debate” will need to take place about how stores continue to operate over the coming months and years, particularly in terms of social distancing and hygiene.
“Regulations around selling food may become an issue for retailers, so when you look at bakery and salad bars this will be an area where retailers will have to think about how they sell food and be more innovative around in-store dining and selling,” he says.
“The sector will have to look at the spaces between tables and chairs in most convenience stores and in forecourts where seating has played a huge part in innovation and store development around the country. We will have to see how we can lay out seating so that it can be comfortable for people to sit in in-store dining areas while maintaining social distancing. That will be a huge challenge, but I think it is achievable – it is about being creative in addressing this issue.”
What impact will Covid-19 have on the sustainable retailing agenda, especially the drive to eliminate plastic, given that consumers are now reluctant to purchase loose fruit and vegetables in the current climate?
“I think it will re-focus the minds of everyone,” he says. “Even when governments find a vaccine for Covid-19, another virus could emerge over the next few years, so I think this global pandemic will create a whole new debate on packaging and on how food will be transported from supplier to store and from store to customers.”
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Maev Martin. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
