VTEX is the fastest growing ecommerce platform in the world, according to IDC. We are a solution with a fully integrated commerce, marketplace and order management system, delivering the fastest time to revenue.
Security, support and solid digital commerce capabilities are some of the things to keep in mind when browsing and researching for the ecommerce platform that best suits your business needs. Besides that, a good, fast and reliable ecommerce platform can be helpful for both the business owner and the consumers. Strategies that help with growth not only involve the technological aspect of building an ecommerce website but also establishing authority and trust with consumers.
There are plenty of other factors and functionalities to consider when choosing an online ecommerce platform. Below is what we bring to the table followed by some real-life success stories that prove we’re not all talk, offering the best solutions and functionalities to boost online grocery operations.
Why is VTEX the best platform for grocery ecommerce?
Because we focus on tech, so you can focus on revenue.
Picture this: one day you are getting an average of orders per week and, on the next, that number goes up by 300%. Huge, right? This was a real story that happened with Zona Sul, a Brazilian grocery chain, when the first lockdown was declared back in March 2020. But how can you make sure that those numbers won’t crash the website, nor affect the way that customer service and order fulfillment works? Easy: scalability and fast implementation time.
VTEX’s multi-tenant SaaS architecture offers headless microservices that, through low-code development, reduce the project’s time to market, making it more agile while combining data from multiple sources. What makes ecommerce implementation different at VTEX is that business and tech are combined to meet each customer’s needs and enable them to achieve their goals.
With VTEX, you get the best of both worlds: offering customer convenience and business growth through reliable solutions. Below, you get to know more about our solution and what we offer.
Seamless unified commerce
VTEX is built for omnichannel commerce. We allow brands to have even more contact with the customer in various steps of the buying process. Talking about grocery shopping, some customers might prefer the convenience of buying online and picking up in-store, while others choose to physically pick their own ingredients and products, but not take them all home at once – they’ll need help on fulfilling that extra delivery mile.
Making sure that every possibility is covered and everything works seamlessly is a challenge, since the omnichannel business model can still show some gaps when it comes to integration and exchange of information between multiple servers, stock numbers, delivery availability.
VTEX’s headless capabilities enable customization with a combination of native apps and features that helps in filling out possible gaps that can appear when running an omnichannel operation. These features are combined together to cater to each client’s specific needs and preferences without interrupting the back-office information flow – such as order numbers, stock management, customer data.
Composable commerce: VTEX plug-and-play features
Our plug-and-play features are powered by VTEX App Store, a place created by VTEX’s community of developers where apps can be tested and tried seamlessly just like you would on your smartphone. Remember our low-code development? It plays a big part in this too, because there is no need for extra software development or new coding for the apps to work.
Being able to customize and add-on to an online store is very important to maintain each customer’s uniqueness. The customization comes in different packages, ranging from offering advanced search strategies with VTEX Intelligent Search, product recommendations, targeted promotions to customer support, store design and even privacy and security.
The available apps have been programmed, tested and reviewed either by VTEX or by partners and there is no hassle when adding one to your store. If you’re on a tight budget, for example, there is no need to choose between getting a basic or a pro pack. With VTEX App Store and plug-and-play capabilities, you are able to mix and match what works for your business model, your customers and your developers.
Ramping-up your grocery business
One of the main strategies to retain grocery shoppers is keeping them close to the store by being as close to them and to the real shopping experience as possible. A way of doing so is by communicating with customers through chats and messaging apps, like WhatsApp. An integration with a company that specializes in this type of service sounds extensive, bureaucratic and expensive, right? With the Suiteshare app from VTEX App Store, it isn’t. Plus, if you have any doubts or feedback regarding the app, you have direct access to the creators and other developers, creating a safe learning environment for all.
Grocery shopping is a habit in almost every household, no matter how often it is done. Getting day-to-day household products like milk, paper towels, toilet paper, toothpaste, olive oil and others alike. With the VTEX Subscription System app, your customers have the possibility to subscribe to specific products or bundles for a discount and to automatically receive their order with a specified frequency, as well as to easily make any modifications in their “My Account”. It also allows data to form an accurate demand profile for inventory level planning and scheduling to avoid customer dissatisfaction.
Step by step, these new features and capabilities can lead to growth and a better performance across the company’s operation. We call this headless commerce: decoupling the front and back-end for a better workflow and a higher degree of customization.
Fulfillment and operational efficiency
Guaranteeing fair price, establishing accurate delivery SLAs and justifying shipping costs are the main topics considered by VTEX when it comes to deciding how to fulfill an order.
Imagine a client ordered a can of tomato sauce, pasta and shredded cheese for a homemade dinner to be delivered at home. Let’s suppose there are three locations from where the order can be shipped: a small store near the customer’s house, a bigger store located 30-minutes away or the main warehouse. The VTEX platform will analyse the size of the order, cross-check the storage availability in these three locations and, with that data, define the better delivery strategy.
This is possible thanks to an essential tool for every ecommerce operation, called distributed OMS (Order Management System). It helps improve how your business receives, processes, manages, and completes orders. This includes everything from collecting payment, shipping the items, creating invoices and reporting them. Among the benefits are cost-reduction, profit maximization and data integration from multiple other servers, like ERPs, POS and, most importantly, the WMS (Warehouse Management System).
Connected OMS and WMS capabilities
The WMS is capable of managing the whole logistics process inside an organization’s inventory system, proving to be necessary to every grocery operation that aspires to be successful. It accelerates productivity, controls stored items, saves time and avoids failures, plus it integrates with other departments improving internal communication.
The OMS serves as the WMS connection to the ecommerce platform structure, bridging the gap between the inventory control picking system and the other core online retail functionalities like the catalog, the cart, promotions and discounts.
The main challenge is getting the WMS, OMS and the ecommerce platform to seamlessly integrate. This can prove to be a hardship when there are three different companies working together risking damage to the business as a whole.
That is why here at VTEX, OMS is a part of our offered services at no extra cost and we offer various WMS service providers worldwide through our partners. Plus, we do the hard job of integrating the whole thing: only one team will be in charge of this alongside the WMS service provider to reduce any bumps on the road.
A multi-channel operation is key
An online commerce strategy is completely successful once all agents that work towards implementing or bettering that ecommerce operation are unified. This means giving customers consistent updated data about stock availability, delivery deadlines, open pick-up points and physical stores addresses, if necessary. All of that combined with a good user experience, no matter where they are logging in from: an app, a browser, their smart watch, or even their voice activated devices.
Grow your business with VTEX
One of the advantages of going online is being able to reach more than just your regular audience, specially with good order fulfillment options. But being able to reach more customers doesn’t necessarily mean you will have to allocate more resources to get closer to them – we offer the tools and ways to do it.
Marketplace and catalog expansion
With a marketplace integration, you can increase product offering and develop a bigger brand influence and awareness by increasing the store’s assortment. VTEX’s marketplace capabilities can unleash new selling possibilities, expanding market reach, reducing overhead expenses and creating new revenue streams.
These are some of the positive outcomes of establishing a marketplace, but how do they work?
VTEX’s unique marketplace solution helps optimize operations. By reducing the time and cost of seller onboarding, you stay in full control of your own business, while selling more products in your store at a low-effort. It also makes management easier, with automatic category mapping, logs, and suggestions to approve and refuse products at scale.
The extra mile
As a VTEX client, you have access to exclusive events, webinars and other kinds of valuable knowledge from our team to yours. Don’t be fooled, you don’t need to know how to code to understand what ecommerce is all about. All you need is an open, future-proof mind that is ready to learn and grow.
Hear it from our clients
- When it comes to customer convenience, Walmart Argentina has got it in the bag. As we’ve mentioned, building a functional and complete customer experience on digital channels goes beyond building an ecommerce store. To do that, they mixed and matched some of VTEX’s top functionalities like the Intelligent Search, the persistent cart, algorithm-based recommendations and different fulfillment options through a complete distributed OMS and omnichannel solution.
- As the first Brazilian grocery chain to have an ecommerce operation, Zona Sul also chose VTEX as a partner for digital transformation years after their debut in the online world. Agility was their main request and VTEX IO, the answer they were looking for – composable, seamless and fast. On top of that, they also needed scalability for the numbers of orders that came in once lockdown restrictions were put in place. And VTEX made it work in record time. Read more about it here.
- Did anyone say agility? With VTEX, Ametller Origen was able to change 100% of their ecommerce fulfillment operations in just five days while also dealing with incredible growth due to COVID-19 restrictions. Talk about fast work, right? Today, they operate online at full capacity in Spain with over a hundred stores in the Catalonia region.
- In Latin America, DIA Argentina has integrated brick and mortar stores to their online operations in order to make the shopping experience connected, keeping customers happy with more stock options and fulfillment methods. Want to know how VTEX integrated 352 stores in under four months? Click here to download the case study ebook.
Composable, future-proof and growth-focused strategies are just some of what we have to offer here at VTEX as a way to keep your business thriving. Are you interested in what VTEX can do for your business through ecommerce? Get in touch with us.
