Understanding Consumer Preferences Remain Non-negotiable, Says Amazon Fresh Director

As the ecommerce platforms have started to navigate through unchartered territories and the consumers from the tier-2 and 3 cities have rapidly made their presence felt in this vast ecosystem, the need for having a proper understanding of what the consumers want has never been so crucial.

Highlighting the nature of localised buying patterns that have emerged on the online grocery platforms, Srikant Sree Ram, the Director of Amazon Fresh has emphasised that having an understanding of consumer preferences has become non-negotiable for online grocery platforms to stay ahead of the competition.

Speaking to BW Businessworld, the Amazon Fresh Director spoke on a range of aspects from having the correct assortment to delivering the best quality products through a series of quality checkups and ensuring that the consumers get to choose their own slots.

Localised Buying Behaviour
Being such a culturally and geographically diverse country, India has various categories of consumers who have completely different requirements and needs when it comes to food and grocery choices, so catering to this sort of localised buying behaviour has been an uphill task.

“Understanding consumer preferences and catering to them is the biggest challenge, not just for Amazon Fresh but for the grocery industry because it is such localised buying. The pickle that you eat in Andhra is very different from the pickle that you eat in Punjab. So how you make sure that your assortment is catering for each of these preferences is the biggest challenge,” emphasised the Amazon Fresh Director.

Tech-enabled Quality Control
As technology has made rapid advancements in the last few years, quick commerce platforms have leveraged it to make sure that they do not compromise on quality while catering to their consumers. Srikant Sree Ram gave a glimpse of how the company integrates such technology into their own business.

“We have given the farmers an app which uses machine learning and computer vision. They can click a picture and instantly know what is wrong with the crop. We have a set of trained agronomists to whom they can ask questions,” highlighted the Director.

The 4-step Quality Check
As ensuring quality control becomes crucial in the grocery delivery business, especially for perishables, it has become important to have a framework in place to ensure consistent quality and freshness across product categories. Shedding light on the fact that consumers care the most about quality in this segment, the Director noted that the company has a four-step quality check framework in place.

“First quality check has happened because we have the app. When the farmer comes and gives the produce to our collection centre, we check the quality before taking it in. Then it comes to our processing centres where another quality check is carried out. When the packaged product arrives at the fulfilment centres, the quality is checked again,” revealed the Director.

Srikant also highlighted that when a picker picks up a product after an order has been placed, the quality is checked again.

Getting The Assortment Right
As the quick commerce space has been getting fiercely competitive, it has become crucial for platforms to have the right assortment when it comes to catering to the requirements of consumers. 

“We have over 5,000 products that consumers can order within two-hour slots and get it delivered in as fast as two hours. Around 20,000 products can be delivered within the next day, so getting assortment right is the first critical point,” highlighted the Director.

Keeping App Experience Simple
Highlighting the importance of having an app where the consumers do not have to hassle through to keep things under control, Srikant shed light on the factors they have focused on at Amazon Fresh.

Srikant Sree Ram highlighted, “The focus is to make sure that the experience that a consumer has on the app is as simple and easy as possible. We have made reordering very easy. You can see everything that you have bought in the past, just add to the cart and you are done. We have a recipe store where if you open a recipe, you click one button and all ingredients are visible.”

The Director mentioned that the platform also has thematic stores depending on the time of the year and the location. “Two weeks back, we had Onam in the south, so we had an Onam store in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,” he stated.

The Convenience Of Slots
Shedding light on the tendency of consumers to prefer convenience while grocery shopping, the Director stated, “We want to make sure that consumers have slots whenever they come to look into the app.” He highlighted that having convenient slots available for a consumer to schedule their delivery has been a priority.

As Amazon Fresh gears up to meet the demand requirements during the festive season sale, it aims to meet the parameters of quality while ensuring that the consumers have a positive experience while doing their festive season grocery shopping.