In addition to the development of new customer segments, the expansion of business territory is another huge advantage created by using the Yamato Group's Online Supermarket Services. There has recently been a trend for online supermarkets to use an existing large-scale brick and mortar store as a base without establishing a specialized operations base. Store staff gather products in store in response to orders, and then pack and ship from the back of the store. There are many cases involving online supermarkets operated by major supermarkets that use this method to deliver an order via specialized charter delivery within a radius of 2 to 3km from the store. This overlaps with the customers using the brick and mortar store, resulting in no change to the store's business territory.
"Our 'Online Supermarket Support Services' use TA-Q-BIN, which enables coverage of a broad delivery range within a radius of 10 to 30km from the store. Also it is possible to book orders from regions where there are no brick and mortar supermarkets, so a business can cover a wider ranging business territory," says Ise.
As of the end of 2010, 28 supermarkets nationwide had decided to implement the Yamato Group's Application Service Provider (ASP) services in developing online supermarket operations. Sales have already commenced for 16 of these supermarkets. Most of these made one main store with a broad mix of products as the base of their online supermarkets from which they covered an entire prefecture. These supermarkets are now able to take orders from more rural areas where their coverage was lacking.
By taking advantage of the merits of a broader business territory, a supermarket can also expect enhanced customer satisfaction thanks to the larger selection of goods offered. There are many supermarkets that, though they want to carry typical products, do not become fully involved in such operations because they fear losses from waste resulting from limited sales due to a restricted business territory. However, using the Yamato Group's solution supermarkets can cover a broader area and hence carry a larger selection of products. Matsuzaki introduces a solution that only the Yamato Group can provide: "For example, you can garner the attention of customers by holding a regional product exposition using an online supermarket and selling products that ordinarily cannot be bought in a certain region. Suppliers of these regional products can also be referred by the Yamato Group, and if you also use our 'Web Shipping Control Service' system, no stocking risk is involved as it instructs our regional sales companies to ship products via our TA-Q-BIN network after an order is received."
The Yamato Group includes the following companies: Yamato Transport Co., Ltd., which has developed an express delivery network nationwide; Yamato System Development Co., Ltd., which develops and operates diverse IT solutions including data centers; Yamato Home Convenience Co., Ltd., which transports and sets up consumer electronics, household goods, and machinery that cannot be transported via express delivery; Yamato Logistics Co., Ltd., which specializes in domestic and overseas logistics outsourcing; Yamato Financial Co., Ltd., which provides settlement services; and others. These companies pool their talents, which encompass "information, logistics, and settlement", to provide optimal solutions from a comprehensive perspective to the problems of client companies.
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