Online grocery shoppers prioritise quality and value for money over speed: Survey

More than two-thirds of all customers place value for money and quality as the most important criteria when shopping for groceries online, instead of the speed of delivery, according to a new survey from LocalCircles.

When asked what they look for when choosing a platform or app to shop online groceries, 37 percent of the respondents stated that they look for “quality of products” while 30 percent of respondents chose “value for money” as their answer. Just 5 percent of respondents stated that delivery time was the factor that mattered the most to them.

The survey included 87,000 respondents located in 254 districts across India. Six out of 10 surveyors were men while nearly 4 out of 10 were women. The survey found that leading online grocery delivery platforms like Amazon Fresh, Swiggy Instamart, Dunzo and Big Basket scored higher on the quality chart, with each of the platforms scoring 3.5 out of 5, compared to Blinkit, Zepto, Flipkart Grocery and JioMart, which received lower ratings.

Despite the rapid rise of instant grocery delivery services, only a small section of respondents was looking for ultra-rapid delivery. Only 14 percent of respondents wanted groceries to be delivered within 3 hours even as 28 percent of the respondents wanted delivery slots according to their convenience. A quarter of the respondents were happy with orders taking 1-3 days to deliver if they had to pay no convenience or shipping charge while 33 percent of the participants wanted groceries to be delivered within 3 to 24 hours without any fees when shopping above a certain order value.

The urgency was seen to be a key driver for only 17 percent of the respondents, who ordered groceries as and when they needed those items. 52 percent of the respondents planned their grocery shopping and ordered items monthly.