LAS VEGAS — Hy-Vee has a new bold e-commerce goal to offer shoppers a complete e-commerce shop on its website in five minutes or less, CEO Jeremy Gosch said at Groceryshop last week.
Gosch said during a keynote address Thursday that it currently takes around 40 minutes on average for Hy-Vee shoppers to complete an online order. Innovations in artificial intelligence and other enhancements promise to dramatically reduce that time.
Slashing the number of minutes shoppers spend building a basket down to single digits means providing them with easy access to their repeat purchases without cutting them off from seasonal goods or evolving trends, Gosch said. He added that Hy-Vee is looking to AI to recognize when consumer preferences shift.
“We’re obviously in a four seasons area where we’ve got spring, summer, fall and winter that changes the basket pretty significantly,” Gosch said. “And so we’re going to have the ability to recognize that and be able to preload a lot of things to the cart and do some things through using AI that’ll allow us to be very quick for [our customer] to be able to shop.”
Hy-Vee has been on an e-commerce kick recently, introducing fulfillment of online orders in as fast as 30 minutes for both delivery and pickup back in July.
“[O]ur goal is it’s all about speed and meeting the customer where they’re at,” Gosch said. “And they obviously want quick, and so that’s where we’re going.”
When it comes to advancing its e-commerce offerings, Hy-Vee utilizes both its own internal teams as well as tapping third-party partners, Gosch said. The grocer is currently “doing a full rewrite” of all its digital properties and will commence beta testing these new capabilities within the next month, he added.
