Rimi Online Store Expands Reach to Business Clients

Rimi Eesti Food AS has decided to focus on serving business customers via the online store and is gradually expanding the scope of delivery, as the company intends to provide access to the online store services to all of Estonia. In addition, a number of convenience services are being developed, such as repeat orders and group accounts.

Rimi launched its retail online store in 2020, when Covid-related travel restrictions were preventing daily store visits. Helen Ledney, head of e-commerce, said the company did not focus on business customers at the time, instead putting all its resources into retail. “We have been focusing on business customers since this year and have developed a number of solutions for them, as well as adding a dedicated business customer service specialist,” she said of the change in focus.

According to Ledney, Rimi has many business clients, and their number is growing steadily. “We don’t have everything fully set up here yet – for example, there is no e-invoice payment yet, it is still being developed. As we solve this problem, our services will become available to even more corporate clients,” she assures.

Careful preparation

Before developing e-commerce solutions for business customers, Rimi conducted several focus group interviews to determine needs. “We asked what the ideal conditions for ordering should be and what the delivery of ordered goods might look like. Of course, respondents considered sufficient assortment, good service important, and another wish was a permanent contact person so as not to wait on the call center line. In addition, the ability to quickly solve problems was considered important. In most small companies, there is no position that involves placing orders in the online store; usually, this is done by managers. And they do not want to waste a working day on dozens of little things, so we tried to simplify purchasing in the electronic environment as much as possible,” says Ledney.

Just like private customers, organizations prefer to order goods with delivery – such corporate buyers make up as much as 86% of the customer base. “But there is also a group of customers (about 11%) who value the opportunity to pick up their order in person at a store convenient for them. There are also customers who prefer express order. They order urgently and can pick up the goods in 30 minutes,” says Ledney. She added that express order has its own peculiarity – a limited assortment: 20 items and 20 units of goods are allowed. “If you want to buy a larger quantity of products, you need to place an order in advance, then it goes through our order system, and we deliver the ordered goods to the store,” Ledney explains.

Ambitious goals

Today, Rimi’s delivery service covers half of Estonia, including Saaremaa and Muhu, as well as the areas and surrounding areas of all major cities – Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Narva, Rakvere, Tapa, Viljandi. According to Ledney, in the case of Viljandi, a fairly large part of the county’s territory is covered. “The store in Viljandi partially serves Järva County, in the southern part of Viljandi County, delivery includes Karksi and Abja-Paluoja. Of course, this supply area includes the resorts of Käsmu, Võsu, Haapsalu and Narva-Jõesuu. Tallinn is responsible for the largest delivery area, which today extends to Haapsalu, Märja County and Järvakandi. The service area of ​​the Tallinn region is slightly more modest in the direction of Lääne-Virumaa, where it reaches Kehra,” the head of e-commerce describes the delivery coverage. “We want to expand supplies in all directions, but we must take into account that with each new area, costs will also increase.”

She added that the population density in rural areas is unfortunately low, so decisions on expansion need to be carefully weighed against how much resources they will require, as every hour of a courier’s work and kilometre of travel means quite large expenses. “We can cover all of Estonia with delivery right now, but then we will be talking about different scales of expenses. Of course, we are striving for this goal, but we must act wisely,” Ledney said. According to her, customers in the regions are more loyal, because the competition is low, and if they are satisfied with the service, they will not simply change their usual store. In large cities, especially in Tallinn, there are many offers, and customer preferences are not so constant.

Features of the consumer basket

Speaking about the assortment, the head of work with business clients and their contact person at Rimi, Lidiya Ledney, reported that it is no different from the choice for private clients. “You can order everything you might need in the office or on site. From milk and fruit to stationery. For example, “RimI Healthy Friday” is very popular, within the framework of which you order goods for the next week and get a 15% discount,” she says. All discount codes and offers apply to business clients.

“While private clients are quite price-sensitive and closely follow campaigns, business clients order according to their needs. Moreover, if a campaign includes sterilized milk or other products with a long shelf life, they will stock up more,” said Lidiya Ledney. As for the preferences of business clients, it turned out that they most often choose products from the buffet assortment: coffee, candies, tea, milk. At the same time, the top, as in the case of private clients, includes milk and bananas, but there are still differences in the list of products for business clients – for example, an assortment of seven varieties of Kalev candies. “Private individuals do not often include confectionery in the TOP, but for business clients this is a completely logical choice – both for the team and for guests,” added Lidiya Ledney.

One of the most important areas of the online store’s activity is order picking. Helen Ledney said that the company’s main success factors here are speed, accuracy and quality. Particular attention is paid to selecting fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables for the client. For this purpose, Rimi has a freshness guarantee. In addition, pickers are prescribed very precise requirements for the expiration dates of the goods that can be included in the order.

Services comfort

A business client has several options for paying for purchases: a bank link in the online store, credit, and prepayment. When asked what a company needs to get a Rimi loan, Lidiya Ledney answered – fill out an application on the website. Currently, a standard loan is 300, 500, or 1,000 euros, but you can also request a larger amount. When reviewing an application, a credit check is carried out, and a decision on granting a loan is made within five working days.

For a business client, the purchasing process at Rimi has become as simple and hassle-free as possible. According to the head of the online store, one of the so-called comfort services is the repeat order option, which can also be used by private clients. “To do this, you need to set the same order for the next two months. For example, when the company receives five kilograms of bananas, several packs of coffee and a bag of sweets every Monday. If the client sees that the stock of other goods is running low, he can add to the next order,” she explained.

Rimi recently launched a new solution for business customers that allows them to use a group account that provides departments within the organization with access to corporate credit.

As an environmentally conscious company, Rimi delivers its products in paper bags or Baun deposit bags. The latter are currently only available in the Haabersti delivery area, but Rimi plans to introduce Baun bags in other stores as well.