HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN...

RETAILER INTERVIEW

NATALIE LIGHTFOOT

LONDIS SOLO CONVENIENCE, BAILLIESTON, GLASGOW

IT’S BEEN A HECTIC WEEK FOR GLASGOW LONDIS RETAILER NATALIE LIGHTFOOT AS SHE EVOLVES HERHOME DELIVERY SERVICE AND COPES WITH THE RECENT EASING OF LOCKDOWN REGULATIONS.

HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN NATALIE?

Very, very, very busy! Sales are still growing and last week we were up 6.5% over the week before. There aren’t enough hours in the day.

HOW ARE SALES PERFORMING AGAINST THE ‘OLD NORMAL’?

Well, we’re up about 50% this week compared to the same week last year. It’s astonishing really, although we haven’t had the time to actually sit back and appreciate that yet. It’s been so incredibly busy that we haven’t had a chance to analyse it all properly.

AND YOU’VE EVOLVED YOUR HOME DELIVERY MODEL IN THE LAST WEEK?

Yes, we’ve been doing home delivery for a little while now. It was something we always wanted to do. We’d been talking to Snappy Shopper since last June but it took until about nine weeks ago. We launched it initially as a free delivery service because it felt like the right thing to do under the circumstances, but it became so popular so quickly that we really needed to start charging. We only introduced the delivery fee last week and we were afraid we’d lose a lot of our customers now we’re charging.

DID YOU?

No. As far as we can tell, we haven’t lost a single customer. Additionally, we’ve seen the basket spend rocket in the last week. When it was free delivery the figure was around £26. Now that there’s a charge, the spend has risen to £35. Before we were getting some customers using the service twice a day but now that they’re paying a delivery fee, I guess they just get everything they need in one go so that they don’t have to pay twice. How many deliveries are you doing? Monday to Thursday we average 25 to 35 deliveries a day. Weekends are higher. On Saturday we did 63.

WHY DID YOU EARMARK HOME DELIVERY AS A GROWTH OPPORTUNITY?

We actually started out focused on food-to-go as the key opportunity but the store is quite small and doesn’t have room for a big unit. We’re also surrounded by fast food outlets on the high street we’re on, so we decided that home delivery was maybe a better option.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE SNAPPY SHOPPER?

Their app is nice and clean and it’s easy to use for both shoppers and retailers. I looked at some other options but when you use third-party delivery companies you’re automatically slashing your margin or overcharging the customer. We were very keen to keep in-store pricing on the app because our customers know how much things cost, and they wouldn’t have responded well to having to pay inflated prices to have them delivered. Snappy Shopper lets us keep our prices just as they are in-store.

DO YOU THINK YOU’LL RETAIN YOUR HOME DELIVERY SHOPPERS AFTER COVID-19?

I think we will retain the majority of them, yes. Home delivery is actually working out really well because so many customers are now used to ordering their food from the fast food outlets that it feels quite natural for them to then order their alcohol, soft drinks and confectionery from us at the same time. I don’t think that will change when lockdown ends because the ‘want it now’ mentality is now firmly ingrained.

HOW HAS FOOTFALL BEEN IN THE STORE?

It has fallen significantly, by probably about two thirds compared to normal – but that’s not a surprise as we operate a ‘one-in, one-out’ policy so we can literally only have one customer in the store at a time. It makes the fact that turnover is up so much even more remarkable.

HOW DO YOU COPE WITH CHILDCARE?

My husband Martin and I have kids so we can’t both be in the store at the same time as we have to look after the kids. Martin has been doing a lot of the time in the store and I look after the kids and handle all the back office, accounts and admin work. It’s not easy but it works, although it means we’re pretty much always working in one way or another.

IS AVAILABILITY BACK IN LINE THESE DAYS?

Yes, we’re pretty much back to normal. We had a few sticky patches and we still struggle on obvious stuff like flour and yeast but for the most part availability is back to normal. We’ve sold more flour in the last couple of months than we sold since we opened the store! Thankfully Londis have been great on fresh and we’ve seen sales quadruple in that category.