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THE WEEK IN RETAIL ISSUE 42
EDITOR’S COMMENT
GET OUT YOUR BOXES
Food Box deliveries. Now there’s a thing. They’ve been around for a while with companies like Hello Fresh carving out a niche for themselves, but in recent times the supermarkets have started getting in the act. Several of them offer Food Boxes of one description or another. Some are simple as just all the ingredients you need for, say, a meal for a family of four. Some are a bit more complex, offering all those random ingredients you need to have if you want to try to replicate a fine dining experience at home, seeing as you can’t enjoy a fine dining experience in a restaurant. There’s veggie options, alcohol options, Valentine’s options, you name it.
So while reading an article recently by Val Kirillovs of CACI (a former SLR Rewards judge when he was with HIM), it struck me that it was strange that we haven’t seen many local retailers have a go at Food Box deliveries. In a sense, they’re tailor-made for the convenience retailing channel, particularly with home delivery services rapidly becoming ubiquitous.
Nobody knows their customers like local retailers, so offering the right selection of boxes should be a piece of cake. And they’re good news on the commercial side. Guaranteed minimum spend, easy to pick and pack, easy to theme, and easy to advertise and communicate.
At the end of the day, it’s only a slight tweak of the existing home delivery model, so all that retailers would need are a few branded (recyclable) cardboard boxes, a smartphone and a bit of imagination.
As Kirillovs points out inside, consumer demand for Food Boxes is growing, it’s predicted to keep growing and it’s convenience and personalisation that matters most to many shoppers, as well as avoiding having to go to supermarkets. Is now the time to get out your boxes?
