Useful Resources for Facing COVID-19: Online Shopping

Lately, we’ve all been facing issues with the impact of COVID-19 and how it has affected our daily lives. Even the smallest of things have been impacted, like shopping at grocery stores, our jobs, and much more. There are so many things that I took for granted before, but the impact has really forced me to find other resources to adjust my life, and that is what I wanted to share with my readers.

Shopping has been one of the major things impacted for myself, especially with trying to practice social distancing, so I have been using the delivery features on the stores that I frequent the most. I will be covering the two(2)I have personally used, and giving my feedback on each, with my rating.

1)H-E-B:

Rating-(5)🌍🌍🌍🌍🌍

This is my personal favorite, and the app that I utilize the most often. They have a great selection of food and other essentials, including household, baby, hygiene, and other items. I love this app for a number of reasons, but the number one is how user friendly it is.

A)Navigation:

The app is easy to use. It allows you to create shopping lists, as well as view past orders. What sets this feature apart from the others with the same feature, is that theirs allows you to view each item by swiping left and right, and quickly add all items to cart again as a group or one item at a time.

B)Savings:

It’s easy to apply savings with store offers and coupons. While you’re shopping, it automatically notifies you of coupons available for the item you selected, and also shows the selection of the items that qualify for the coupon. This is a major plus for the customers who are like myself, that sometimes picks the wrong items, or are confused on which items to select to meet the requirements. This often results in many of us missing out on tons of savings.

C)Delivery:

The delivery option is one of the best too because it has a sort feature that no other app had, and it applies this automatically, making it easier to review the items in the cart one last time before the purchase. Items were grouped by categories such as household, groceries, pharmacy, etc. No other app offered this feature of sorting by group, so this was unique to the H-E-B app. You can add notes for the shopper completing your order, as well as add forgotten items up to four hours until the time of delivery. This is also where I added specific delivery instructions(call upon arrival, gate codes, etc) There is an option to allow substitutions, and if you choose to use this feature, you are notified through text that an item on your list was substituted. The downside to this is that you are not directly in contact with your shoppe, so items that aren’t available are not substituted all the time, and you may not receive everything originally in your cart. Due to COVID-19, they are also limiting carts to only 75 items. Usually same day delivery is available also, but lately the delivery options have been 3-5 days out due to demand. They accept all cards for payment, even prepaid cards for those that do not have traditional bank accounts. Each time I have received my orders, the drivers were friendly, and none of my items were missing or damaged. Overall, I have been completely satisfied with the process and the service. I definitely recommend using them for your shopping needs.

1)Target:

Rating-(4)🌍🌍🌍🌍

This is my second favorite app. I gave it this rating mostly because it was not user friendly for the consumer, but they do offer some alternatives that make up for this inconvenience. I’ll explain more in detail in the Delivery section.

A)Navigation:

The app itself is not very easy to use. Everything is a bit hard to find on the app when trying to add items in the cart. I will say they have a great selection of merchandise to choose from, and a variety of selections in each category.

B)Savings:

They are pretty good on this app. Using the Target Cartwheel feature, customers qualify for many different deals in several departments. They also have incentives with their coupons, like free gift cards, free items, and many more. This is something that I haven’t seen offered from the other major chains, and it definitely sets them apart. They also apply the savings easily when you choose the qualifying items and add them to your cart.

C)Delivery:

As I stated earlier, this is the section where I feel the company makes up for the inconvenience of not being very user friendly. They offer the option to have your shopper text you if items in your cart aren’t available. Although the other stores offer this feature, it is not as advanced as the one offered by Target. During my delivery, I had several items in my cart that were not available due to shortages caused by the impact of COVID-19. My shopper used the text feature and it helped tremendously. She informed me the items weren’t available, but also communicated which items were PHYSICALLY at the store and could be used as substitutions. This made a world of difference in my customer experience because I was able to get the majority of things in my cart, even if it was a different brand than the one I originally picked. When I encountered the same shortage problem from H-E-B, the system notified me through text the items that were not available, but offered no alternatives, or an option to communicate with my shopper directly. This resulted in me receiving an order with more than half of the items I ordered not being delivered, and dampening my customer experience. However, I was not charged for any items that didn’t arrive, so I was not left with an inconvenience of processing a refund, they did it automatically. With Target actually giving you direct access to your shopper, it raises your chances of getting all of your items. They also offer same day delivery for most of the merchandise. I like this because H-E-B usually offers this option, but since the shortages, all deliveries have 2-5 days out. These unique features sets them apart, and makes the overall experience nice, in spite of the app not being as user friendly.

I hope that this was helpful to someone, as we all need to pull together during this difficult time. Keep in mind that even if you are not in Houston, or even Texas, that the delivery feature on both apps/websites offer a shipping feature that can be used to deliver merchandise across the globe. This is extremely helpful in the event that your local stores are out of merchandise or if you’re unable to physically go to the store. Stay safe and thanks for reading 🙂