Dive Brief:
- Wakefern Food Corp. announced Monday it has added live tracking to grocery delivery orders.
- The live tracking technology, which was launched in partnership with Delivery Solutions, is available for delivery orders from more than 200 stores under the ShopRite and The Fresh Grocer banners.
- The new feature aims to give customers more transparency and control over their grocery deliveries.
Dive Insight:
Retailers, restaurant chains and e-commerce providers have stepped up their order tracking capabilities in recent years, and consumer expectations for the information they receive about their online purchases have risen as a result.
With On Delivery Solution’s dedicated platform for Wakefern’s live tracking feature, online shoppers can get live location updates and receive messages such as “out for delivery” and “delivered” on their orders. Customers can also use the platform to provide survey feedback on their delivery experience, per the press release.
“Our customers rely on us to provide them with the highest level of service and convenience, and our live tracking page is another example of how we are fulfilling that commitment,” Elizabeth Goodbread, Wakefern’s director of digital commerce and analytics, said in the announcement.
Delivery Solutions, founded in 2017 and based in Plano, Texas, also counts Office Depot, Sephora, Total Wine & More and Lowes Foods among its clients.
The live tracking tech is the latest digital innovation for Wakefern. Earlier this year, the company expanded its partnership with Simbe Robotics to bring the company’s AI and robotics tech to more ShopRite stores, opened an autonomous convenience store with Trigo's frictionless checkout solution and added tech-enabled sampling kiosks in nearly 100 ShopRite and The Fresh Grocer stores.
Wakefern announced in June the addition of Instacart’s Caper Cart to the ShopRite store in Spotswood, New Jersey, and Fairway Market Kips Bay location in the New York City borough of Manhattan.
Wakefern Food Corp. includes nearly 50 member families who independently own and operate hundreds of supermarkets under half of a dozen banners including ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer and Fairway Market.
