How to Own the Grocery Customer and Keep Them

In online grocery, the delivery driver is often the only person a customer ever meets from the retailer. Whoever runs that delivery, and whoever holds the order data behind it, holds the relationship and decides whether the customer comes back.

That creates a tension in grocery right now. Retailers rely on delivery platforms to reach more customers, but those platforms want the customer data just as badly, and they often work with the retailer's competitors too.

Petr Lizner (Veloq & Rohlik Group) and Diana Leza Sheehan (PDG Insights) joined Jeremy Goldman at Groceryshop to discuss what grocers gain by owning fulfillment and delivery, how to keep customers coming back while running it profitably, and what Rohlik has learned from more than a decade of building its model in-house.

INSIDE THE EPISODE:

LEVERAGE FOLLOWS THE FIRST-PARTY DATA:

The partner with the most leverage is the one that sees what shoppers search for, add to their baskets, and leave behind. Many US grocers don't have that access. For Rohlik, customer data stays in-house because it feeds everything from remarketing to product design. As AI shopping agents arrive, that same data lets a retailer tailor recommendations around a child's allergy or a household's food intolerances.

GROCERY LEAVES LESS ROOM FOR ERROR

People buy groceries far more often than other products online, orders span multiple temperature zones, and margins are thin. Rohlik built its own technology end to end and set a target of 95% perfect orders: no delay, no substitution, no missing item, and no claim, including deliveries in 15-minute windows. The stakes are higher for a pure-play grocer, because a customer with one bad order goes to a physical store and doesn't come back online.

IF YOU CAN OWN ONE PIECE, OWN THE FEEDBACK LOOP

Not every grocer can afford to run fulfillment and delivery in-house. The piece worth keeping is the comparison between what the customer ordered and what they received, since it shows where the experience breaks and drives retention. Partners can fill in the rest.

Listen above to hear how Rohlik made owning the full journey pay off, and why handing off the online business may soon look as risky as handing someone else the keys to your stores.