How to train your personal shoppers on produce

We’ve all heard (or said ourselves) why fresh produce is the lagging category in the grocery e-commerce race.

“Those shoppers don’t pick my fruit at the right ripeness.”

“Produce is personal. I like to handpick it myself.”

“The shoppers get it wrong: the quality, the variety, the pack type or the substitution.”

“It’s hard to tell what you’re actually getting when you order it online.”

Produce is the final frontier in online grocery shopping, partially because of the variability and subjectivity.

The “personal” element to this shopper experience can set apart one retailer’s e-commerce program from another. Greensboro, N.C.-based The Fresh Market calls its online pickup service the “Friendliest Curbside Experience in America,” said Gerrick Polinsky, The Fresh Market’s e-commerce manager for merchandising and operations.

“It's not just fulfilling an order. There's a person behind that screen who’s relying on you to shop as if they were in the store,” Polinsky said. The specialty grocer is inspired by the European-style market, operating 159 locations across 22 states.

Listen: Get the full interview with The Fresh Market's Gerrick Polinsky on the “Tip of the Iceberg Podcast.”

The golden rule applies to these supermarket personal shoppers. “Stop & Shop’s produce philosophy is ‘WIBI,’  or ‘Would I buy it?’ If we wouldn’t put it on our kitchen table, we won’t deliver it to yours,” said Nick Distalo, director of e-commerce operations at Stop & Shop. The Ahold Delhaize-owned retailer has more than 400 stores.

How retailers handle e-commerce

Many bigger chains have invested in their own online ordering apps, powering everything from the first customer's click to the groceries landing in their hands at home or in the car. Other retailers partner with third-party services, such as DoorDash or Instacart, to help.

DoorDash allows a choice between Merchant Pick, when the grocer chooses to pack and prep orders, or the Dasher Shop, when Dashers arrive at the store and shop according to the list. If an item is out of stock, they’ll contact the customer and suggest an alternative. Then, they'll get in line and pay with a DoorDash credit card.

Instacart can handle everything for a retailer from end to end, or it can just do the behind-the-scenes work while the retailer employs the personal shoppers. The latter option is becoming more popular, as the retailer can have more oversight. Customers may not even know while shopping the retailer-branded website or app that it’s powered by Instacart. Rosie, Instacart’s white-label solution for local and independent grocers, now allows these small grocers to use Instacart fulfillment services to pick, pack and deliver orders along with customizable online storefronts with webpage creation capabilities.

“The strategy of being on both the Instacart App and having our own branded online shopping experience using Rosie technology just makes sense,” said Ron Cook, vice president and director of marketing at Quincy, Ill.-based Niemann Foods, with more than 100 stores.

Also, Instacart is adding OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot technology to its grocery delivery app to power a new search engine designed to respond to users’ food-related questions, such as asking for recipe ideas and ingredients, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Cincinnati-based Kroger shifted its e-commerce strategy significantly the last few years, as have most retailers. After placing an order on the Kroger website or app, customers in regions where a customer fulfillment center is located have groceries delivered by a Kroger delivery associate in a temperature-controlled van. The associate is tasked with ensuring order freshness and satisfaction, managing order changes and informing customers of loyalty membership benefits.

Related: What motivates digital impulse purchases for produce

By early 2020, The Fresh Market launched its own website, powered by Instacart, which was handling the delivery orders since a pilot program began in 2018. This business model enabled the retailer to promote e-commerce for its own fully branded and controlled website instead of having shoppers go directly to Instacart to reach them, “although you still can, and many still do,” Polinsky said. “We just wanted to have our own channel there so it could feel like The Fresh Market."

Instacart provides the technology to allow the guest to place that order. “But our team members are doing the communication, they’re picking the items, they’re staging it, they’re taking the items out to the car when you arrive,” Polinsky said. “So, it really is The Fresh Market experience, even though we’ve got a great partner with Instacart running things in the background.”

Aldi has expanded its e-commerce capabilities to have groceries delivered to a customer’s doorstep or loaded in the back of their car, with the help of its own employees plus partners, said James Kinnear, Aldi's director of e-commerce. Curbside orders placed on shop.aldi.us are picked by Aldi’s employees, and delivery orders are completed by the delivery partner’s personal shoppers, with Aldi-specific education.

Personal shopper training

Instacart has a library of how-to lessons on best practices for shopping, called Carrot Academy. These optional lessons include:

• Identifying quality items (including produce).
• Making good replacements.
• Communicating with customers.
• Using Instacart’s virtual community for shoppers, called Shop Talk, to discuss best practices, ask other shoppers for their opinion on unique situations, or connect directly with Instacart.

The Fresh Market employees who do curbside orders have to go through multiple training sessions, sometimes as specific as a course on cherries. “We don't just have produce training. We have all these different modules to educate our team members on what's special about what fruits,” Polinsky said.

The training classes involve seasonality and what questions they, as the personal shopper, might need to ask the customer. “We do everything we can to make sure the person shopping that order is as prepared as possible to get it right,” he said.

Stop & Shop’s home shopping selectors are associates versed in multiple departments and customer service. They do on-the-job training centered on produce selection, Distalo said, and perform quality assurance checks throughout the day. “Not only is product verified by trained produce associates, orders are also checked by our home shoppers prior to selection and spot-verified by management prior to delivery,” he said.

Aldi’s curbside employees go through an interactive, online training program that walks them through best practices for shopping, including triple-checking all products for freshness, proper bagging procedures and how to select the best replacements if an item happens to be unavailable. Like others, Aldi employees are trained to shop curbside orders like they would for themselves or their own family. “It’s simple — and a no-brainer for our employees — but also a powerful reminder," he said.

Aldi’s delivery orders are handled by a third-party service, requiring a different approach. The retailer partners with Instacart and DoorDash to develop Aldi-specific instructions. “This includes information on our efficient store layouts and a reminder to purchase paper bags for customer orders because Aldi doesn’t offer single-use plastic bags,” Kinnear said.

Produce preferences

Most retailers and digital shopping platforms have targeted the top produce complaints.

Customers can input specific requests or substitutions through Instacart and DoorDash prior to placing their delivery orders for Aldi. And for curbside, Aldi customers can note specific requests and that they’re open to substitutes if a given item happens to be unavailable. “Our curbside team then selects a best replacement based on their expertise of our Aldi offerings,” Kinnear said.

When selecting produce items for a curbside order, Aldi employees are encouraged to pay attention to customer notes about desired ripeness. “[They’re] taught the signs to look for when selecting produce that’s soon to ripen or already ripe and to triple-check each item for freshness before adding to the cart,” he said.

At Stop & Shop, customers have the option to select ripeness preferences on key produce items such as bananas, plantains and avocados. Also, customers can select the “Auto-Substitutions” option in their account, and Stop & Shop’s trained pickup and delivery associates will make appropriate substitutions if a selected item is out of stock.

With the Instacart app, both customers and shoppers can initiate communication about replacements or any other requests. Customers may choose to have their shopper select a replacement item or request a refund if their preferred item is not available. These preferences are then shared with their shopper, who may also chat with their customer about any potential replacements.

But there’s more to this personal shopper experience than education on produce and getting the order right, The Fresh Market’s Polinsky said. The customer service experience must be memorable to create shopper loyalty.

The Fresh Market’s curbside customers often receive a handwritten thank-you note and a free sample. In winter and spring holiday seasons, sometimes an employee dressed as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny will place their groceries in the trunk.

Shoppers are trained to introduce themselves by name within 30 seconds of the online order, be friendly and keep the conversation going throughout the entire order and ask questions, especially if something is out of stock. If a guest ordered an avocado, the shopper should ask when they or their family want to eat it, so they know the ripeness to choose. The personal shopper may get to know repeat customers' favorite substitutions and dietary restrictions. 

“Obviously, training is really important. And continuous education is really important,” Polinsky said. “But you can’t stop at efficiency and effectiveness. It also has to feel special and be memorable.

“Find ways to introduce those little moments that are going to make the guest’s visit to your store [online, in-store or at the curb] memorable. Those are what truly makes a great program.”

Produce EDU: Train your team or yourself

On ProduceEDU.com, choose from our growing roster of professional training courses, each with a quiz and certificate of completion. Use these credentials to get that new role or raise.

Here's a sampling of our courses, with more to come:

• Produce Buying Fundamentals
• Merchandising 101
• Sustainability Insights
• Understanding Fresh Produce’s Carbon Footprint
• Berry Academy
• Indoor Agtech