CSA Exclusive: Utah grocer offers one-click online checkout

Independent grocery retailer Macey’s is streamlining the online purchase process while customizing seasonal promotions.

Based in Salt Lake City, Macey’s operates 22 stores in Utah and is part of the Associated Food Stores (AFS) independent supermarket cooperative. In April, Macey’s rolled out new enhanced functionality of its existing Rosie grocery omnichannel commerce platform, including one-click checkout, “deep linking,” and multichannel marketing tools.

Macey’s utilizes the platform to provide online shoppers with a one-click checkout experience. Returning customers can place orders by saving information such as payment details, address, and preferred order fulfillment. According to the retailer, this process reduces abandoned carts and increases conversion and revenue by saving customers time and convenience.

Leveraging Rosie’s deep linking capabilities, Macey’s can share specific departments or products on its website, social media pages, and/or via email. As a result, the retailer can bring products directly to customers’ preferred and personal channels. Macey’s can also now offer collections, the equivalent of customizable digital end caps, which allow the grocer to combine products from different departments and temperature classes to highlight seasonal items, meal planning, recipes, vendor-sponsored promotions, and local or specialty products.

In an exclusive interview with Chain Store Age, Thomas Horne, senior e-commerce manager, AFS, described how Macey’s and other AFS co-op participants have implemented the platform. He also discussed how Macey’s recently optimized a themed Easter collection utilizing Rosie.

“Rosie was implemented in waves across our locations with expansion that is still ongoing,” said Horne. “We currently have over 120 locations under forty-eight banners that use the Rosie platform. In the early days of the Rosie partnership, we introduced online shopping to markets in Utah. Rosie allowed us to innovate and grow our business by giving our customers options to buy groceries online, many for the first time ever. “

Because Easter is an important holiday for many Macey’s customers, the retailer decided to apply Rosie’s customized promotion functionality to create digital holiday offers.

“We know that there are many items that are traditionally purchased during the Easter holiday season, like eggs, egg dye kits, ham or potatoes, that help families celebrate this meaningful holiday,” stated Horne. “By simply creating custom categories merchandised with essential Easter items and sharing them through email and social media, we saw over a 200% increase in Rosie conversions. We could not be more pleased with the results, but this also proves that our customers appreciate the ease of finding similar or themed items in one place while shopping online.”

Based on these results, Horne said Macey’s and other independent grocers participating in AFS will continue to expand their usage of the Rosie platform.

“We look forward to growing this important offering and way to shop with our AFS retailers, knowing that there has been a shift in consumer habits and now more than ever, our customers are looking for options when it comes to how they grocery shop,” concluded Horne.