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Justin Dery joined British-based start-up Doddle in 2017 to establish its first international expansion – in Australia. Doddle creates sites for customers to pick up or return online purchases and manages the click- and-collect transactions at those sites Mr Dery is responsible for managing Doddle’s regional go- to-market strategy, including its key partnership with Australia Post. He is also responsible for business development of Doddle’s proprietary technology platform with major retailers through Asia Pacific. He was previously founder and CEO of Coverpoint Marketing Group, a full-service digital and brand management agency based in Sydney. You’ve stated that the impact of COVID-19 has jumped Australian ecommerce forward 10 years, with this being most visible in grocery ecommerce. Please expand on why you believe this has been the case. Australian ecommerce has historically grown steadily and predictably. COVID-19 has moved more consumers online and increased frequency of purchase for those already shopping online. We know this because, for many retailers, their ecomm volumes are up over 100 per cent in the space of a few weeks. It’s been a remarkable feat by Australian retailers to pivot services and respond in the time that they have. Myer, for example, has relaunched Click & Collect as a pop-up kiosk to provide more delivery options given the strain on the delivery network and delays in home delivery. While we can expect some parts of life to return to pre-COVID-19 states, ecommerce isn’t one of them. To your knowledge, have any supermarkets in Australia had the ecommerce resources or ability to succeed during this period? Grocery certainly felt the strain early on, with the big supermarkets having to suspend home delivery and click and collect, but they’ve come back from that and I think we’ll see them invest more in the digital technologies that support alternative delivery options as consumers become accustomed to purchasing groceries online. The particular areas we expect to see develop are refrigerated locker solutions, click and collect, and also drive-up or drive-through click and collect services. What can grocery retailers implement in the short term to meet the needs of online customers during this period of uncertainty? The more grocers can enable consumers to choose alternative delivery options, other than home delivery, the more capacity we’ll create in the delivery network and the more efficient deliveries will be. Click and collect is the obvious alternative and it doesn’t have to be from the customer service desk. Using technology to deploy mobile click and collect can enable grocers to offer car park pick-up or utilise additional locations in the brands network, like service stations. These services can only benefit the business if consumers know about them and use them, so the quickest and cheapest option in the short term is to promote these services to customers via existing and owned channels. How can retailers ensure the health and safety of staff and customers during the delivery or pick-up of orders? This has understandably been of paramount importance to Australian retailers, and as a consumer you experience it through demarcation of social distancing decals on floors, hand sanitiser at all entries and exits, limitations on the number of customers in-store at any time, as well as staff wearing personal protective equipment and installation of plastic service screens. Some of the other applications, though, are digital – solutions like booking slots to stagger customer arrivals for pick-up, pre-advised instructions on safe handover of deliveries, self- service lockers, and drive-up technologies to give staff notice of arriving customers and their number-plate details to facilitate contactless handover straight into the customer’s boot. Looking ahead, what can retailers do to ensure a stable and successful ecommerce platform? An often overlooked part of the ecommerce journey is returns. A bit like the chicken and the egg, which comes first: delivery or returns? It might surprise you, but 72 per cent of Australian consumers check a merchant’s returns policy and options before making a purchase. Providing clear information about your returns policy and options on your website is a critical step to ensuring ecommerce success. The Australia Post Easy Returns portal is a great tool to support merchants to digitise returns and improve the efficiency of their operation, while also providing their consumers with a great experience and multiple locations to return that item to. Ensuring consumers have a good returns experience has a big impact on customer loyalty: 41 per cent of Australian shoppers have stopped shopping with a retailer following a poor online returns experience. Do you have any examples of international grocery retailers that have achieved success with online services during the pandemic? From our experience in the UK market, Morrisons were quick to support customers, announcing the rollout of Click & Collect to 100 stores, a service not previously offered. Similarly, Sainsbury’s notified its customers that it was ramping up an expanded Click & Collect service, significantly increasing the number of collection sites across the country. In the UK, 75 per cent of people live within a mile of five pick-up and drop-off options, many of which are in locations offering essential services like food and medicine, which have remained open throughout the pandemic. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW “The more grocers can enable consumers to choose alternative delivery options, other than home delivery, the more capacity we’ll create in the delivery network and the more efficient deliveries will be.” MAY, 2020 RETAIL WORLD 21