Peapod Adds Economical Subscription Plan, Long-Term Discount Programs

Ecommerce grocer Peapod is executing a long-term sales strategy that includes a more economical delivery subscription option, sitewide price reductions and new discounts on grouped products.

The strategy is part of the online grocer’s initiative to show customers its permanent commitment to value and to “keep delighting” customers every time they shop.

"When planning the reductions, we began with one important question: What do our customers care about the most? It sounds simple, but we wanted to ensure we are giving our customers exactly what they want at the value they expect," said Spencer Baird, SVP of merchandising at Ahold Delhaize USA-owned Peapod, who added that "initial feedback has shown shoppers are very happy with the new value Peapod is delivering."

Among the new offerings from the Chicago-based e-grocer are:

• PodPass MidWeek: At less than half the cost of Peapod’s PodPass free-delivery subscription service, PodPass MidWeek offers free deliveries on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays for $55. It’s also available in three-month and six-month subscriptions for $25 and $35, respectively.
• Lower prices on thousands of popular products: These include natural and organic items, meat, fresh produce and dairy. Products with everyday price changes will display two tags – the original price, but with a slash through it, and a new, lower price next – with many of these items also displaying red flags to indicate additional savings through weekly promotions.
• Bundles of savings: These are discounts on groups of products commonly bought together, created out of mined transaction data. Customers purchase a certain number of products within the group, and additional discounts are applied. Already popular are the Taco Tuesday, Spaghetti Thursday, Morning Coffee On-the-Go and Salad Fixings bundles.
• Buy More Save More: For popular stock-up products such as berries, frozen vegetables and eggs, this service lets customers save money when purchasing two, three or four items in a category, and lets them mix and match different products to save. These types of bulk-buying discounts allow customers to customize their own club packs.

Peapod has been working over the past year to make it easier for consumers to shop its wares, stock their pantries and get dinner on the table. Last July, the grocer introduced “Ask Peapod,” its Alexa skill for hands-free voice ordering to enable immediate, in-the-moment additions to virtual carts, a move lauded by a number of retail technology experts. It followed that up at the end of the year with Chat-to-Cart, an order-by-text platform that allows shoppers to text via standard characters, dictation and even emoji icons to order their groceries, and even share their lists with others.

The grocer also opened its fourth Pennsylvania wareroom, which it plans to use to serve up to 25 percent more shoppers in the Philadelphia area, and added six varieties to its line of meal kits, following a 104 percent increase in new customer purchases year over year and an average rating of 4.4 out of five stars.