THE GREEN ROOM | CUSTOMER STORY

Online shopping service NCR Freshop enables smooth curbside pickup

Pronto! Curbside

Northgate Market needed to quickly add curbside pickup, but didn’t have online ordering. So, we delivered NCR Freshop and now customers have a safe, fast way to pick up groceries.

"We partnered with NCR to unveil Pronto! Curbside, an online shopping service offering ease and convenience for our customers who can now order their favorite Northgate products and get them safely loaded into their trunk in as little as two hours."

 

– Mike Hendry, EVP, Marketing & Merchandising, Northgate Market

What they needed

Online ordering & curbside service—fast

Founded in 1980, Northgate Gonzalez Markets is a family-owned and operated authentic Hispanic supermarket chain in California. They’re the largest Hispanic supermarket chain in the U.S., thanks to their commitment to family values and nourishing their customers with budget-friendly, quality food. Their in-store experience is like visiting a Mexican mercado with a cocina, bakery, and a tortilleria with fresh tortillas, guacamole, and more. 

So, when the pandemic hit, it was a big adjustment to bring that vibrant in-store experience to their customers through an eCommerce solution. It was also important to keep their online ordering solution in-house, since their employees are the most knowledgeable about their food selections. Also, they know many of their customers did not want to pay for annual memberships or premium prices for delivery services (like Instacart or Shipt).

 

What We Delivered

NCR Freshop

An online shopping service that allows customers to opt for curbside pickup. The platform gave Northgate Market the flexibility to support orders placed in Spanish and English, while the native API-first architecture speeds up innovation with reporting dashboards that show ordering activity by store, day and customer. It also includes administration rights so it’s simple for Northgate to instantly adjust order times, product availability and more, like changing the average weight of produce, for each store.

What happened next?

50% repeat customers & 90% fill rate

In just weeks, Northgate Market’s online sales have steadily grown with well over 50% in repeat customers. And they have an order fill rate of over 90% with clear ordering activity visibility to make quick adjustments, which helps increase order accuracy. Now, their customers are easily ordering authentic Mexican food and grocery items, which are safely loaded into their car in less than two hours—helping Northgate continue to differentiate themselves as a provider of excellent customer service, no matter when or where it happens.

Own your customer experience

Cloud-based IT means you can effortlessly integrate online ordering with your POS giving you complete control over your brand and customer experience so you can have:
  • Personalized web & mobile ordering
  • Powerful fulfillment capabilities
  • Efficient pickup and delivery