Virtual Grocery Store Explained

As we multitask our way through our busy day, why not grocery-shop as we wait for the subway or train? This is what drove Tesco and Peapod to provide virtual grocery stores aimed at on-the-go commuters.

Virtual Grocery Stores are large displays (bill boards or digital signage display) with life sized pictures of common grocery items. Below each item, there is a unique QR barcode associated with the product for shoppers to purchase on the spot with their smartphones and schedule deliveries.

Tesco (South Korea and UK) and Peapod (US) have deployed these virtual grocery stores at public transit hubs like at the airports, subways/train stations, and bus stops, where tens of thousands of commuters gather, to deliver convenient grocery shopping between wait times. Tesco in South Korea and Peapod in US have adopted the static billboard platform, while Tesco in UK deployed interactive digital signage  for a cleaner look and smaller footprint.

According to Tesco, mobile revenue has more than doubled in the past 12 months. Interactive Media in Retail Group projects mobile commerce (m-commerce) to make up around 15% of all online sales by the end of 2012. In addition, a Nielsen survey found that 61% of respondents already use the internet to shop for groceries and one quarter of them plans to purchase groceries online in the next 6 months.

Is the virtual grocery store the next frontier to food shopping for our families in this digital era? We think so. So many commodities are already being purchased online; the virtual grocery store will be one more convent way to tackle our daily to-do list on-the-go and free up our time. We anticipate the static billboard to be upgraded to interactive digital signage very soon as this solution is a much more efficient way to deploy, mange, and lower TCO for business owners.

Have more questions on the right digital signage solution for your business? Learn more from this link here or ask us here on the blog.

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