The website of the largest food retailer via the Internet in the Czech Republic, the online supermarket Rohlík.cz, collapsed on Thursday evening. Internet merchants are experiencing déjà-vu: their customers order supplies in case of a lockdown. The croissant had to reach for regulation.
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“The Rohlík online supermarket is introducing measures that will help serve even more customers from the safety of their homes,” the company announced in a press release in the evening. The main change is the newly introduced limit of a maximum of 35 items per purchase and the possibility of only one order per day per customer.
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“We understand that these steps are restrictive. However, we cannot turn our backs on the people who need our services urgently. Whether because the measures have complicated their family or work life, or perhaps because they have been quarantined from day to day and are dependent on outside help, “says Petr Pavlík, director of Rohlík.cz.
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The online supermarket is working to increase capacity, hiring reinforcements for warehouses and distribution, and reserving larger volumes of goods with suppliers. “The opening of our next warehouse in Prague in Horní Počernice next week will be a major support,” Pavlík promises.
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Fear of lockdown
By limiting purchases, the croissant responds to the rapidly growing demand. As the government tightens in anti-epidemic measures and fears of another lockdown are spreading among the people, purchases of food and daily necessities are skyrocketing.
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“Interest in shopping is growing rapidly now, we are getting to a similar peak as the spring one,” says Rohlík e-shop spokeswoman Zdenka Svoboda Kuhnova. The company is confident with the restriction of purchases against the situation that surprised it in the spring. After the declaration of a state of emergency and the closure of the Rohlík stone shops, as well as other e-shops, they did not cope with a sharp fluctuation and their ordering systems and the delivery of goods collapsed.
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It is said among traders that Rohlík is being pushed to limit his services not only by a change in customer behavior, but also by complications in the introduction of a plant from the new Černnice warehouse. The increase in purchases, similar to the spring one after the declaration of a state of emergency, is also confirmed by other retail companies. And not just the internet.
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“We also feel an increase in sales, even though they have not yet reached the level of the purchase fever from the spring emergency. But since the beginning of the week, there is still a short time for a clear comparison. In any case, we manage supply and customer service, “says Lukáš Němčík from the management of the COOP consumer cooperative, which has 2.5 thousand stone shops throughout the country.
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Rohlík’s main competitor, the Košík online supermarket, has been recording a sharp increase in sales since the government gradually began closing schools. Earlier this week, the company estimated that “liquid” growth would reach up to three times its current turnover. According to Košice spokesman František Brož, the forecast is still being confirmed and will probably be fulfilled this weekend.
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“Since the beginning of the school year, we have a fifth higher sales every week, the increase is already well above last Christmas’s level. With regard to customer interest, the situation is similar to that in the spring, ”says Brož.
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Households as gastronomy
The spring shopping spree in the Basket, for example, was characterized by food orders for as little as eight thousand crowns, and individual purchases weighed as much as 300 or 600 kilograms. Giant packages usually contained canned food, pasta, legumes, instant porridge and bottled water or lemonade. Households ordered food in volumes that until then were common only at restaurants.
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Therefore, in the spring, the basket proceeded to similar restrictions as Rohlík is now introducing: it capped the weight of a one-time purchase to fit in the car at all.
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But online marketers say they are ready to grow demand this time, unlike in the spring. “The situation in the spring has shown us the greatest weaknesses. Previously, for us it was the only shopping peak of the year at Christmas, all traders had common outages at that time. Now we have adapted to the fact that the peak can come several times and last several weeks at a time. It forced us all to improve what we can, “says Brož.
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Košík also hires reinforcements, this year it has increased the number of employees and temporary workers by more than 35 percent. “Newcomers are joining us this month as well – often from the sectors most affected by the current crisis. We accept people across all fields – logistics, finance, marketing, administration, even IT, “calculates the spokesman for Košík.
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In addition, companies are optimizing their logistics and warehousing systems; according to Brož, performance can only be significantly increased by rebalancing goods in warehouses.
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New locations
The volume of food sales over the Internet is also growing due to the fact that retailers have expanded the reach of their services over the summer. Rohlík began to ship to southern Bohemia or the Mladá Boleslav region, Košík introduced dry food supplies to the whole country in the spring and has already stayed with this service. Despite the fact that interest in buying food on the Internet was more lukewarm from the countryside during the summer coronavirus release than the company expected.
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Now, however, the countryside is turning to the Internet to a much greater extent, and interest in food imports is growing in double digits throughout the country, not only in large cities, according to Brož. “In year-on-year comparison, we are more than double last year’s options,” he concludes.
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