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not be an error long as the retailer may move back to buying from the branded rm. Weighing in on this is the fact that these retailers are big customers. Are the produce companies really going to start suing their best customers if they don’t cooperate?
Part of the issue in digital selling is the technology and systems view produce as a commodity. Even if the online portals or apps are promoting a particular brand of produce, they allow for the delivery interchangeably with another brand.
This is not the case with grocery items that have de ned SKUs by brand and size. So, if you order Snapple in 20 oz. bottles, retailers won’t deliver Arizona Iced Tea or even Snapple in a different size without notifying consumers of an out-of-stock and getting permission to substitute. In contrast, you can order Halos and receive Seald Sweet’s Mandarina’s without notice.
RAISING THE QUALITY BAR
There are lots of speci cs that impact how produce will be sold online and pack- aged for home delivery. Indeed, one can expect that home delivery will create many new obligations for producers.
It is one thing for produce to be imper- fect in a store. The retail clerks can see this and trim or sort to remove the poor-quality produce. Even if they don’t, the consumer can typically see this and either sort through and take the good stuff or not buy it at all.
Home delivery is more like the export bsuiness. When exporting, it is imperative to ship the produce in the best condition. Why? Because if you get a rejection, it is not on a relatively inexpensive box of produce; it is on that box, plus overseas freight, plus tariffs, etc.
Equally, if the produce that is delivered to a home is unacceptable, you have spent
all the delivery costs and still have an irate customer to deal with who might need that particular item for dinner that evening.
Recently, we placed a dinner order with Delivery Dudes, a restaurant delivery app, for our team working late at the Produce Business of ce. The food was delivered ne – but they forgot the beverages. The Delivery Dudes folks immediately removed the drinks from our bill, but that didn’t satisfy us. We had all this food and wanted our drinks! We had to ght like crazy, and get the actual restaurant involved, to get drinks. And we still weren’t happy! By the time the drinks arrived, the food was cold!
One is reminded of the proverb that Benjamin Franklin famously printed in his Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1758, which he proceeded with the words: “A Little Neglect May Breed Great Mischief”:
For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, For the want of a shoe the horse was lost, For the want of a horse the rider was lost, For the want of a rider the battle was lost, For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.
Perhaps more directly relevant to our logistics-driven case, during World War II the verse was framed and hung on the wall of the Anglo-American supply headquarters in London. The point being, of course, things that seem unimportant can have enormous implications. As an example, dissatisfaction with the delivered oranges can mean a consumer is unhappy with the duck that was purchased to make a special Duck L’Orange for a date or to impress the prospective in-laws. The experience of dissatisfaction re ects on both the delivery service and its parent company.
The general issue is that producers in the produce industry are used to developing product they think wise to produce, packing it in some kind of standard packing, slapping a label on it and then offering it for sale.
In other words, they produce rst, market second. Yet the home delivery market is an
The home delivery market is an example in which better
success will be had by developing product and packaging that allows for successful delivery each and every time.
example in which better success will be had by developing product and packaging that allows for successful delivery each and every time. The start is for producers and marketers to engage with the retailers and delivery services. Only after the retailers/ delivery services have become enthused about the product, even committed to it, then can the industry begin producing and marketing this built-to-purpose product.
SERVING THE OMNI LIFESTYLE
This lesson actually goes beyond simply home delivery to Omni-Channel in the broadest sense.
The logic of Omni-Channel is to serve consumers where, when and how they wish to be served. The obvious channel to think
PRODUCE BUSINESS / JANUARY 2019 / 19