Time-poor grocery shoppers use this service to cut their costs

Time-poor shoppers keen to avoid supermarket aisles and checkout queues are turning to free pick-up services in droves.

Time-poor shoppers keen to avoid supermarket aisles and checkout queues are turning to free pick-up services in droves.

The nation’s biggest supermarkets — Woolworths and Coles — have seen a massive uptake in grocery shoppers ticking off their grocery lists online before trotting down to the supermarket to pick up their goods.

• How we racked up $5000 in international roaming charges

• The NBN hits Aussies’ hip pockets

Woolworths head of online Annette Karantoni said it introduced free pick-up services 18 months ago and more than 500,000 customers had jumped on-board.

It allows customers who order at least $30 of groceries to collect their items for free instore.

“You can control the discretionary spend that you have and without a five-year-old tugging at your skirt who is going to throw things into the trolley,” Ms Karantoni said.

“As you are shopping online, the basket at the top of the page shows how much spending you are committed to.”

Ms Karantoni said if you are sticking to a budget shopping online is an easier way to monitor your total spend, because as items are hand-picked and dropped into your shopping basket a running tally appears on the screen.

Customers have three windows time each day of when they can pick up their groceries from their nearby store.

Woolworths has more than 5000 personal shoppers trawling supermarkets to hand-pick orders.

Mother-of-three Anne Prasad, 30, regularly uses the free supermarket pick-up service because “it’s convenient”.

Mother-of-three Anne Prasad collects her online grocery shopping from a Woolworths store with her children. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

“There’s no stress or impulse buying and there’s no extra cost,” she said.

“I’m a busy mum so this is a quicker way of ordering everything I need online and then just going to the store to pick it up on the way home from work.”

Coles Online’s chief executive, Alister Jordan, said its online sales had climbed by 27 per cent in the last quarter.

Customers need to spend a minimum of $50 at Coles supermarkets or $30 at Coles Express to be entitled to free pick-up.

The supermarket giant is completing its rollout of Click and Collect services across the country and it’s now available at more than 1000 locations.

“It’s growing in popularity as the network continues to grow and there is a great need for an easy, convenient and affordable shopping solution for busy Australians,” Mr Jordan said.

“Parents with children, parents with older children living at home and young professionals are the shoppers that are most likely to use Click and Collect.”

Aldi supermarkets do not offer pick up services.

@sophieelsworth

Originally published as Time-poor grocery shoppers use this service to cut their costs