.png)
Food retailers face mounting pressure from discount chains, mass merchants, and online competitors, all while operating margins continue to shrink. The answer isn't just attracting more customers—it's getting each customer to spend more per transaction. Average order value (AOV) has become the critical metric separating thriving retailers from struggling ones, as it costs significantly less to sell more to existing customers than to acquire new ones. For grocers and specialty food retailers looking to compete without sacrificing margins, omnichannel ecommerce solutions that integrate technology with strategic merchandising offer the most effective path forward.
Average order value measures the average revenue generated per transaction. Calculate it by dividing total revenue by the number of orders over a specific period. This metric provides insights into customer spending habits and overall business performance that traffic numbers alone cannot reveal.
AOV tracks more than just sales—it reflects the effectiveness of your merchandising, pricing strategy, and customer engagement. When AOV increases while maintaining customer counts, you're maximizing revenue without the high cost of customer acquisition.
For food retailers, AOV varies significantly by format:
The food retail landscape has fundamentally shifted. A significant portion of industry leaders expect challenging conditions ahead, with traditional grocers facing aggressive competition from discount chains like ALDI and Lidl, mass merchants like Walmart, and online platforms.
In this environment, focusing exclusively on traffic growth leads to a margin-eroding race to the bottom. The acquisition cost for new customers continues to rise, while sell more to existing customers costs significantly less.
Strategic advantages of AOV optimization:
The distinction between online and offline shopping has vanished. A majority of shoppers check prices on mobile phones even for in-store purchases, and omnichannel shoppers represent the bulk of CPG sales.
Leading retailers don't treat channels as separate businesses. They create unified experiences where customers can browse online, purchase in-store, or mix both seamlessly. Wegmans uses private label products to offer unique items customers want but can't find affordably elsewhere, creating differentiation beyond price.
Key omnichannel tactics that drive AOV:
LocalExpress's omnichannel ecommerce solutions synchronize in-store and online inventory across website, mobile app, and kiosk platforms. This creates the seamless shopping experience that increases sales and customer retention without requiring customers to sacrifice their preferred shopping method.
BOPIS removes friction while creating additional purchase opportunities. Customers who pick up orders often add items they notice in-store, boosting transaction value beyond the original online order.
Set minimum order thresholds for free pickup to encourage basket building. Display targeted suggestions during checkout: "Add $12 more for free pickup."
Self-service technology has matured beyond fast food into full-scale grocery applications. Kiosks eliminate queue friction while presenting upsell opportunities at the exact moment customers make purchase decisions.
Unlike rushed cashier interactions, kiosks can display relevant complementary products without time pressure. When a customer adds pasta, the kiosk suggests sauce. When selecting coffee, it recommends filters or creamer.
Documented kiosk performance advantages:
LocalExpress's self-ordering kiosk systems feature fully branded interfaces that support multiple payment options including Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit cards, and EBT. The systems integrate with POS platforms for unified inventory and include ADA and WCAG support for accessibility compliance.
The labor shortage in retail isn't temporary. Kiosks provide consistent service quality regardless of staffing challenges, while built-in upsell prompts perform better than rushed checkout interactions.
Configure kiosks to highlight:
Mobile self-checkout represents the next evolution in frictionless shopping. Customers scan items as they shop, bag as they go, and pay through their mobile device—skipping checkout lines entirely.
Traditional checkout creates anxiety about line length and wait time. This anxiety often causes customers to limit purchases to what they can carry comfortably or process quickly. Scan and go eliminates this constraint.
When customers bag items as they shop, they maintain better awareness of their cart contents and feel more in control of the experience. This psychological shift often leads to larger baskets than traditional checkout models.
Key benefits for AOV optimization:
Payment flexibility drives adoption. LocalExpress's scan, pay and go solution supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit cards, and EBT payments, ensuring accessibility across customer segments.
The system includes loss prevention through staff app verification and order scanning capabilities, addressing retailer concerns about shrinkage while maintaining customer convenience.
Nothing kills AOV faster than stockouts. When customers can't find items they want, they either leave empty-handed or settle for smaller baskets. Real-time inventory tracking with predictive AI maintains optimal stock levels while preventing overselling across channels.
Price discrepancies between channels erode trust and cost sales. Customers who see one price online but pay another in-store feel deceived, damaging the relationship regardless of the reason.
Seamless POS integration ensures:
Traditional inventory management reacts to what happened. Predictive AI forecasts what will happen based on seasonal patterns, promotional calendars, weather, and historical trends.
LocalExpress's inventory management solutions feature predictive stock analysis, low stock alerts, and barcode/Zebra device support for on-floor adjustments. The mobile and iPad apps let staff make real-time updates without returning to back-office terminals.
Inventory optimization drives AOV through:
Fast, accurate fulfillment encourages repeat orders and higher spending. Customers who trust your fulfillment are more likely to place larger, more frequent orders than those who've experienced errors or delays.
Manual order picking follows inefficient paths, with staff crisscrossing the store multiple times. AI-powered store mapping organizes collection by aisle, department, or zone, reducing picking time by up to 50%.
Fulfillment efficiency benefits:
Stockouts happen. How you handle them determines whether customers forgive the inconvenience or shop elsewhere next time. AI-driven product substitutions suggest appropriate alternatives based on price point, dietary attributes, and brand preferences.
LocalExpress's order management system includes AI-powered substitution suggestions that maintain margin while respecting customer preferences. The system also supports flexible fulfillment options including pickup, curbside, and home delivery from a single platform.
Different occasions demand different fulfillment methods. The same customer might choose delivery for weekly stock-up shops but prefer quick pickup for last-minute dinner ingredients.
Offering all options increases total customer spending by capturing more trip missions:
Modern customers expect personalization—71% expect personalized content and 75% are more likely to purchase from retailers that recognize them and make relevant recommendations.
Retail media delivers personalized advertising across mobile apps, kiosks, and websites while creating new revenue streams. CPG brands pay to feature their products in targeted placements, subsidizing retailer marketing costs while driving incremental sales.
Retail media advantages:
The best retail media programs balance advertiser goals with customer experience. A substantial majority of consumers will share personal information if they receive personalized offers and discounts in return.
LocalExpress's retail media CPG platform delivers personalized advertising across all customer touchpoints while maintaining complete data ownership and white-labeled experience. Partner with top CPG brands to earn additional revenue while showcasing products customers want.
Generic promotions waste money—a significant portion of promotional sales would have occurred without the promotion. Targeted promotions based on shopping history perform better while preserving margins.
Effective personalization strategies:
Marketplace presence extends reach without the cost of customer acquisition. Platforms like Instacart and DoorDash deliver your products to customers you might never reach through owned channels.
Manual catalog management across multiple marketplaces creates errors and consumes staff time. Automated syndication ensures consistency while freeing resources for higher-value activities.
Marketplace expansion benefits:
Grocery products create unique challenges for marketplaces. Variable-weight items, prepared foods, and custom cuts require sophisticated mapping to maintain accuracy across platforms.
LocalExpress's marketplace launch solution deploys catalogs across Instacart, DoorDash, and other platforms at enterprise scale. AI automatically maps grocery variations, manages multi-location inventory, and synchronizes with POS systems including NCR, Toshiba, and IT Retail for fast market entry—typically 5-14 days with a dedicated implementation manager.
Prepared food drives higher margins and significantly higher AOV than packaged goods. Customers purchasing prepared meals often spend considerably more per transaction than those buying only shelf-stable items.
Custom preparation commands premium pricing. Whether it's sliced deli meat, custom cakes, or hot meals, customers pay more for personalized products that meet their exact specifications.
Prepared food AOV advantages:
Prepared food has traditionally required in-person ordering. Modern technology extends these premium sales to digital channels without sacrificing customization.
LocalExpress's prepared food solution enables omnichannel sales with customizable menus, real-time kitchen display systems, cloud printers for department splitting, and POS integration. Serve more customers efficiently across kiosk, mobile app, and website ordering while maintaining quality and accuracy.
Coordinating prepared food orders across channels requires real-time communication between front-end ordering and back-end production. Kitchen display systems organize orders by priority, preparation time, and fulfillment method.
Operational efficiency gains:
Poor product data kills online sales. When customers can't find items through search or filter results, they abandon carts or shop elsewhere. Many shoppers find it difficult to locate products with specific attributes on digital shelves, highlighting the discovery problem.
POS systems contain product identifiers and pricing, but they often lack the descriptive content, images, nutritional information, and attributes that online shoppers need. Raw data creates poor shopping experiences.
Data enrichment transforms minimal POS records into complete product pages:
Price discrepancies, incorrect product information, or inaccurate stock levels cause immediate cart abandonment. 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations.
LocalExpress's AI grocery data fusion seamlessly integrates and harmonizes data from multiple sources. Advanced AI enhances product data, accelerates store onboarding, and maintains real-time inventory accuracy across all channels to minimize discrepancies and maintain customer trust.
Delivery creates both opportunity and risk. Done well, it drives customer loyalty and higher spending. Done poorly, it erodes margins and damages relationships.
Delivery represents the highest variable cost in online grocery. Inefficient routing, underutilized drivers, and fragmented provider relationships destroy profitability.
Cost reduction strategies:
Different customers and order types require different delivery models. Weekly stock-up shops justify scheduled delivery windows with advance planning, while immediate needs demand on-demand service.
LocalExpress's last-mile delivery management cuts delivery costs by up to 30% through instant integration with DoorDash, Uber, Nash, and 100+ delivery networks. Support in-house fleets, third-party couriers, or hybrid setups—all managed from one platform with complete data ownership and white-labeled customer experience.
Third-party delivery platforms often insert their branding into the customer experience, weakening your direct relationship. White-labeled delivery maintains your brand throughout the entire journey.
Brand preservation benefits:
Mobile apps create direct customer relationships that marketplaces and third-party platforms cannot interrupt. Customers who download your app demonstrate higher engagement and spending than those who don't.
Wegmans and similar leaders use mobile apps as central hubs for the entire shopping experience—combining ordering, loyalty program access, digital coupons, and personalized recommendations in one place.
Mobile app AOV drivers:
Email open rates average 20-30%. Push notification engagement rates vary widely but highly targeted, timely notifications can significantly outperform email. This immediacy creates urgency that email cannot match.
Effective push notification strategies:
Mobile self-checkout extends beyond scan-and-go functionality. Full mobile apps let customers complete entire shopping sessions from product browsing through payment without ever touching a physical register or kiosk.
LocalExpress's mobile application converts in-store customers into loyal customers through branded iOS and Android apps. The drag-and-drop builder creates custom experiences without coding, while features like self-checkout, push notifications, and mobile admin tools provide enterprise functionality for retailers. With 24/7 technical support and complete brand customization, the platform helps food retailers stay top of mind while delivering seamless shopping experiences.
Average order value measures the average revenue per transaction, calculated by dividing total revenue by number of orders. For food retailers, AOV matters more than traffic alone because acquiring new customers costs significantly more than selling additional products to existing customers. With operating margins declining across traditional grocery chains and a significant portion of industry leaders expecting challenging conditions, increasing what each customer spends provides sustainable profitability without margin-eroding price wars.
Self-ordering kiosks increase AOV through automated upselling at optimal moments. When customers add items to their cart, kiosks suggest complementary products without time pressure or awkward human interactions. The systems also improve order accuracy, reduce labor costs, and collect valuable customer preference data. LocalExpress's kiosk systems feature branded interfaces, multiple payment options including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and EBT, plus ADA and WCAG accessibility compliance with industry-standard data security protocols.
Yes. Modern scan-and-go systems support EBT payments alongside Apple Pay, Google Pay, and traditional credit cards. LocalExpress's scan, pay and go solution includes full payment flexibility while maintaining loss prevention through staff app verification. Customers scan items via their mobile phones as they shop, bag as they go, and pay without waiting in checkout lines—all while retailers maintain security through order scanning capabilities and retail staff apps.
Omnichannel integration drives higher AOV by meeting customers wherever they shop. Omnichannel shoppers represent the majority of CPG sales, with online growing at significantly higher rates than in-store. Seamless experiences across websites, mobile apps, kiosks, and physical stores eliminate friction that causes cart abandonment. LocalExpress's omnichannel platform synchronizes inventory in real-time, maintains consistent pricing across all touchpoints, and enables flexible fulfillment including BOPIS, curbside pickup, and delivery—all from a single, centrally managed dashboard.
AI-powered inventory management uses predictive analytics to forecast demand based on seasonal patterns, promotional calendars, weather, and historical trends. This prevents stockouts that kill conversion while avoiding overstock that ties up capital. Real-time POS synchronization eliminates price inconsistencies between channels that erode customer trust. LocalExpress's inventory system features predictive stock analysis, low stock alerts, barcode and Zebra device support, and mobile apps for on-floor adjustments—maintaining optimal stock levels across all sales channels while preventing overselling.
