Decades after the Debaji family first started out in the grocery business, Debaji’s Fresh Market is going back to its roots in a rather unusual way.
“Our family delivered groceries in the old days, but it was very hard to continue in the 80s,” explains owner Mazen Debaji. “I never thought it would come back to that.”
Technology is helping the high-end Calgary grocery store to come full circle, implementing home delivery once again from its two locations.
Debaji has just taken the family business online. Using the holiday season to promote the new Web site, the grocer plans to fully launch online shopping in January.
“We’re hoping people who aren’t comfortable driving to us will go online and order,” he says.
“There’s a large percentage of people that (coming to the store) is an inconvenience for . . . or not something they would think of doing. They’re traditional shoppers and it will be exciting for them to do this online.”
Going online is also an exciting experience for the store. In addition to attracting new orders and a different customer base, Debaji is confident the Web site will be an important marketing tool.
Describing the online Debaji’s as a “snapshot of the store,” he says once the decision was finally made to make the move, actually getting on the Net was the easy part.
With little technical know-how and a greater knowledge of tomatoes than technology, Debaji’s used an online Web site builder to create their site.
Peachtree Network promises small businesses the chance to showcase their products and services on the Internet with a modest outlay of money and a minimal output of time.
“Small businesses don’t have lot of time or money to spend setting up their site, so WebsiteCreator eliminates these challenges,” says Peachtree product manager Gigi Griggs.
“All you need is Internet access and an e-mail address.”
The U.S. company offers what it calls “entry-level Web sites.”
Customers fill in an online template, choose from over 60 different styles and colours, and are able to personalize the free five-page site with their own company graphics. There is no software to load and learn, and no technical knowledge of HTML is required.
“It was really easy and Peachtree took care of everything,” Debaji says. “Getting online wasn’t hard at all.”
For development of the 19-page Debaji’s Fresh Market Web site, a product database, product pictures and completion of the site, the cost was $15,000. Peachtree will also take a three-per-cent cut of each order placed over the Internet as long as the Web site is in use.
“We got a very good deal and the returns will hopefully be rewarding,” asserts Debaji.
“It’s certainly less expensive than conventional advertising. We could get hundreds of thousands of hits without spending much more than we’re spending now.”
Planning to maintain their site on a monthly basis, Debaji’s has hired a new staff member to oversee the site internally.
However, even with that added cost, Debaji feels the benefits of being online will far outweigh the risks.
“It’s an add-on for us, so it won’t incur any new expenses,” he says. “We expect it will just be an additional revenue for our business.”
Debaji’s is anticipating the site will bring in between 125 and 200 orders a week. The company’s onsite orders typically run between $35 and $75. If that trend continues online, the Web site could translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional revenues for the company each year.
“Getting online was the easy part — as for filling the orders, we don’t know yet,” jokes Debaji.
In all seriousness, Debaji says finding the best system for delivering all those orders in a timely fashion without failure will be the biggest challenge.
He says the store is planning to out-source order delivery so that they can serve the entire city, and Debaji is confident his two locations will be able to meet the anticipated demand.
“It’s an untapped market and if you do it right, it’s a great opportunity. Consumers are busy and their time is limited — this is an easy way for them to look at us.”
