Cyprus’ biggest retailer have completely captured the online grocery market share in the country with StrongPoint’s solutions. Using our best-in-class order picking solution they average 220 items per hour and have increased the spend of omnichannel customers.
As everywhere else, Cyprus experienced a huge increase in demand for e-groceries during the pandemic. The grocery retailers were not prepared. As a result, most of them teamed up with delivery platforms/services (Q-commerce players) as they didn’t have time to set up an e-commerce order fulfillment solution first.
While this is simple to get started with, the picking of orders can be very inefficient and the customer journey is out of the control of grocery stores.
AlphaMega is the leading retailer in Cyprus and had researched e-commerce order fulfilment solutions and decided to go for StrongPoint’s solutions before the pandemic. The company opened its e-commerce offering just a few months before the pandemic.
“We considered several providers but were really convinced by StrongPoint. They have a complete solution for us that has already been tried, tested and improved for years. We wanted to take advantage of StrongPoint’s experience and competence, so we avoid making the mistakes that others already have made.”
Andreas Demetriou, CIO of AlphaMega Cyprus.
AlphaMega invested in StrongPoint’s world-class order picking solution, along with the home delivery system and the software platform to organize and control the process. The online orders are picked using StrongPoint’s solution both in-store and in a fulfillment center (dark store) in the same building, and then they are loaded into trucks and delivered to customers using StrongPoint’s home delivery system. Thanks to StrongPoint’s software every part is connected, and the picking order is calculated based on the optimized delivery route provided by the home delivery system.
AlphaMega operates with next-day delivery and picks most for the orders in the afternoon the day before. The exception is fruits and vegetables which are always picked early in the morning before the orders are driven out to customers to ensure maximum freshness.
The results with this set-up, has been at hyper-efficient process allowing AlphaMega to deliver groceries to the entire country, with a profit. Despite not increasing prices or reducing assortment compared to in-store. The only difference in price is a small delivery fee.
“StrongPoint has helped us simplify and eliminate headaches regarding the grocery e-commerce. We have a good integrated solution for picking, assembly and delivery, and they have helped us every step of the way with their experience”. We are picking orders faster than I would have believed physically possible with manual picking”, says Andreas (average of 220 items per hour).
AlphaMega is now working with 1100 online orders in a typical week and have captured a solid 60% of the online grocery market share in the country. They could have delivered more than 1100 orders in a week if not for limited capacity with refrigerated trucks for home delivery.
The importance of meeting the more or less global demand for online groceries can hardly be overstated, and the benefits are bigger than one might first consider.
“We see a clear trend with e-commerce stickiness in the market. Moreover, the basket sizes for the online orders are 3,5 times bigger than for in-store purchases. We also see that customers shopping both online and in-store have increased their spend”, says Andreas.
Andreas is clear on how important e-commerce is going forward and that they seek to fortify their position as the number one retailer in Cyprus by continuing to improve their online offering.
“We are planning to invest in one of StrongPoint’s click & collect solutions in the near future. We are currently discussing whether it will be a drive thru or grocery locker set-up. We see many advantages for both us and the customers with adding pick-up as an option.”
Andreas Demetriou, CIO of AlphaMega Cyprus.
When asked if he would recommend StrongPoint as a partner, Andreas said the following:
“Not to our competitors! But to everyone else, 100%. StrongPoint has really been a differentiator for us and helped us hit the ground running with grocery e-commerce“.
StrongPoint Order Picking is the world’s fastest manual picking solution with customers reaching picking rates of 240-300 items per hour. It’s a cloud-based solution designed to increase the accuracy and efficiency of in-store staff. Our technology augments manual processes to make them 99.99% accurate, and up to 7x more efficient than pen and paper.
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Our Home Delivery module ensures retailers can make their home deliveries as time- and cost-efficient as possible. It optimises the delivery process by planning the best delivery routes, managing the car park and vehicle sizes, and even ensuring that the orders are picked and loaded in the optimal order according to the delovery route. The system also estimates the delivery time and communicates with real-time the customer who can track their order with the app.
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