Aeon Retail Co. on Thursday unveiled its "Drive pickup!" service, in which customers receive items they ordered online in a parking lot at one of the company's shopping centers.
The company hopes this service will spread to many stores in order to keep up with the need for shorter shopping hours amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The Aeon Higashi-Kurume store in Tokyo started the service in full on Thursday. Consumers choose from about 35,000 items including food and daily necessities, order online and pay by credit card. They then go to a special location in the store's parking lot at the designated time to pick up their goods via drive-through.
The minimum order amount is 700, yen and there is no commission fee. Since May, 80 of the about 180 Aeon stores in the Kanto and Kansai regions have introduced the service.
Online supermarket delivery services charge at least 330 yen for delivery, including tax. Customers have to stay home until the items are delivered sometime during a specified time period of two to three hours.
The company also offers a service that allows customers to pick up their products at special counters set up in about 130 Aeon stores or from lockers in about 10 stores.
"We want to strengthen online supermarket shopping for the new lifestyle," an Aeon spokesperson in charge said.
In Japan, retailers have not been able to keep up with the rapid increase in demand for online shopping at supermarkets, and securing delivery has become an issue. In the United States, Walmart Inc. launched a similar initiative called the "click and collect pickup solution." In this service, stores can expect customers to do additional shopping after picking up the items they ordered.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
