Online Grocery

We believe that innovative technology can help close the gap between consumers’ desire to gather around a dinner table over a great meal and their time-pressed lives. Now part of global technology solution leader Panasonic, Hussmann is uniquely able to give food shoppers what they crave.

E-grocery and the rapidly evolving landscape of food retail bring new opportunities to brick and mortar. 

We’re developing online grocery solutions that help food retailers radically streamline and personalize the shopping experience. Examples include innovations like our food pickup locker and IoT “clicks meets bricks” solution, where eCommerce purchases can be collected at retail locations in secure refrigerated, freezer and room-temperature lockers. 

IoT and electronic shelf label solutions provide shoppers with more product information and enable retailers to automate and increase accuracy of their stocking. 

Data collection and analytics – building on intelligent shelf label data – allow retailers to better manage their product mix, item pricing, shopper engagement and in-store marketing.

Even as consumer demand for online grocery shopping ramps up, the physical neighborhood store plays an important role. Local retailers must continue to provide a positive in-store experience while being flexible and adaptable to satisfy the expectations of online shoppers.

Hussmann is here at every stage of the process to help you bridge the divide, working directly with you to develop solutions to evolve and future-proof your retail environment. 

Stage 1: In-store merchandising  

We can customize products to keep up with perishable grocery trends such as “meal kits,” which a large percentage of shoppers are buying online. Hussmann is meeting this need with solutions like our mobile meal kit merchandisers, a flexible offering that can be used in store to attract shoppers or as a mobile storage merchandiser for fresh meal kits to cater to eCommerce demands.

Another trend is shrinking grocery store footprints as the majority of dry goods move online. In existing stores, center dry aisles are being replaced by “fresh” product destinations, which often require added refrigeration capacity. Our merchandisers with customized refrigeration options provide fast and flexible installations for such remodels.

Stage 2: Storing

To meet online demand and improve profitability, some retailers are looking at distribution centers that are either part of existing stores or separate, standalone centers. In either case, when perishable foods are involved, adequate steps must be taken to ensure food safety and food quality. Hussmann designs best-in-class refrigeration and merchandising solutions for these distribution applications, providing expertise in temperature control, monitoring and food safety measures.

Stage 3: Picking

The picking process can be labor-intensive. Many retailers have engaged third-party vendors to handle these operations; others are using in-store staff, which is not always optimal.

Aperion’s electronic shelf labels (ESL) offering is an enhanced, omni-channel experience and reduced operating cost for our food retail partners. Real-time data can be tied into the store’s eCommerce platform. ESLs have visual identification that helps operators easily identify the right products and optimize the picking process. This has shown to improve picking time by an average of 30-50% and lead to an average revenue increase of 5% per basket.

Stage 4: Staging/holding

When retailers use curbside pick-up or other forms of delivery, a staging or holding area is typically needed to store perishable foods at appropriate temperatures. Generally, these are extensions of existing stores. Running refrigeration in this area requires additional HVAC and rack capacity for these units.

Hussmann provides a range of solutions to meet the needs of the staging area, from roll-in and remote merchandisers to electronic shelf labels, offering flexibility and more efficient labor and operations.

Stage 5: Pickup/delivery

Delivery is the most complicated and laborious step in the online grocery process. To simplify this, many retailers use third-party vendors, which can cut into profits. Hussmann is developing next-generation innovations, such as refrigerated pick-up lockers, to help retailers curb “last mile” costs and better manage quality control. 

Our food pickup locker can be used outside stores or in neighborhoods with a larger customer base for community delivery options. With these refrigerated lockers, food quality of medium temperature and frozen perishable products can be preserved until shoppers pick them up, just like at their neighborhood grocery store. This end-to-end cold chain solution offers shoppers the convenience they want, backed by a secure system that keeps their data safe.