Internet Shopping… some thoughts….
A wee while ago I was doing some work for Age Uk Camden about their Internet Shopping service. It was a great idea… but probably a little too early for the supermarkets to consider as a commercial deal. Maybe through their CSR strands, but it is currently not viable as a deal that is good for them.
Many AGE UKs have Internet Shopping services. None of them are sustainable unless they are in receipt of some kind of grant to undertake the service.
Here’s some of my thoughts from that exercise… (This was originally part of an email updating people of what has been going on.)
1. The initial concept was that by using the “bulk buying power” of the combined London Age UKs, we could persuade the supermarkets to offer us discounts on the delivery charge (great for our clients) and a discount off the bill (could be used to pay for the worker time). We estimated a £2m spend from the 16 Age UKs we had contact with.
2. At the moment online shopping is a loss leader for the supermarkets. Whilst demand is growing the costs so setting it up and running the services are high.
3. The £2m sounds great but when broken down to preferred supermarkets it relates to £600k for one, £500k for another and less for the rest…
4. The supermarkets were willing to give some kind of deal for new customers (a sign up fee of around a fiver) and a wee bit of discount off the delivery. Helpful but not something we could build a sustainable business on.
5. Discount off shopping was not a possibility as margins are too tight at the moment.
6. In my view the best option would be the national charity to do some kind of national deal with one supermarket and run it through their dedicated call centre.
7. I have looked at a number of ways of making this work but unless we add the costs of the service onto our clients shopping, there appears to be limited ways to develop this at the moment.
8. I understand that AUK Oldham have managed to get a localised deal with their local Co-op. I do wonder if there’s a way of getting a deal with a local store manager. However, one of the things that has become clear is that clients like the choice of supermarket and not be limited to one in particular.
9. Turning it on its head a wee bit, I do wonder if there might be some mileage in exploring internet shopping as one of the outcomes of all the digital inclusion programmes that are happening at the moment. Barclays Digital Eagles is an interesting example of a bank trying to get us online quicker (it’s so much cheaper than using humans!) by teaching it’s customers how to get on skype and facebook… and oh by the way you can do your banking this way too! They’ve clearly invested in this concept heavily so they must believe there is a significant return on investment.
11. Another idea… Are there any other mainstream services that want you to really use the internet rather than face to face- local authorities for example… would this allow AUKs to frame their digital services differently. As in we can help you (the LA) achieve their drive to get more people online… and use your services… oh and learn about internet shopping.
12. I recognise there will still be some clients who need help with this… but maybe it should become part of befriending services… home care… integrated care… rather than a separate service…
That last part led to some further thinking….
I’ve been doing some work with AUK Enfield about their approach to Integrated Care- with a core belief that in order to offer integrated care you need to have integrated services….
A spin off of that, for me, has been the changing mindset that we don’t need to always create new project but by fully understanding the needs of your customers and the skillsets of our teams we can find ways of delivering what they need without constantly creating a new service.
I wonder if a good set of protocols for internet shopping (a noddy guide, in my terminology!) would allow a range of workers to provide that service for clients where it is clear that it would have significant impact.
I could also see it working with some home care services. Spending 10 mins in a session to sort the shopping seems like a better way than having a separate worker ring up etc. Additionally it means that the worker and customer can sit together and do it…. enabling the customer to see the latest deals and be a bit more immersed in the experience. Access to a tablet or smartphone is all that’s needed…
Seems to make more sense that adding another project that will struggle to be self reliant or even profitable.
Which then begs a bigger question…. Are there any other service you currently operate that shouldn’t be a separate project but rather one of the options on offer for your customers?
