Dubai: When it comes to convenience in grocery shopping, Dubai residents are spoilt for choice. Deliveries can be made with just a phone call and even the relatively new online grocery shopping is picking up pace.

Online grocery shopping, where consumers can choose and buy products online and have them delivered where they are, has been in the market for a few years now and patrons said it has made their lives very easy. “It’s extremely helpful. It takes me less than five minutes to do my grocery shopping. All I do is go to my previous order, click, click, click and pay, and I’m done,” Anne Cook, a holistic health educator from the UK, told Gulf News.

Apart from being a time-saver, online grocery shopping also spares her the heavy lifting. “Back home I always used Tesco or Waitrose because they have delivery. So this service has made my life much easier,” Cook, who has used the service of online store Trolley.ae for three years, said.

Hesham Samawi, a Jordanian restaurant owner, agreed. “I used to live in New York and I got used to the convenience of having grocery items delivered to you. Dubai is like New York and there are certain things that I prefer to be delivered home such as heavy items,” Samawi said. “If you’re busy, it’s easy. It works well with my schedule and the fruits and vegetables are also of good quality,” he added. Currently, major groceries and hypermarkets are selling groceries online such as Geant and Choithrams, while Lulu will begin selling grocery items online in August. Other online grocery stores include Trolley.ae and Earlybird.ae. Items in demand are bottled water, food items such as fruits, vegetables, milk and the like; home care items; and beauty products, Jenna Taguines, from Trolley.ae, said.

Buying online can be very easy as well just like buying any other item online. For Geant, for example, a customer only needs to register an account, find out where they deliver, shop online, pay, and then wait for the items to be delivered. Many of these grocery stores said they are not shifting their consumer base online but are only adding another venue their consumers can access their products and services. “This will help give our consumers more convenience. The idea is to give our clients one more way or platform to connect with us,” V. Nandakumar, Chief Communications Officer of Lulu-Mea, told Gulf News.

Alyn Baratita, a Filipino mother of two, said: “I would still choose the traditional way of doing grocery shopping because I prefer to see and examine the products myself, especially if they are food items such as fruits and vegetables. I’d like to see the expiration date and all the other details on the label.” “I don’t trust other people to do the choosing for me. If it were just a gadget, maybe yes. But for food, no, I cannot compromise on the health and safety of my family.” Sharuque Moideen, an e-commerce specialist, used to do his grocery shopping online due to his busy schedule. But since moving to a new neighbourhood where smaller grocery stores are aplenty, he said he now personally hand-picks his groceries.

“I definitely recommend online grocery shopping to people who don’t have time to go to the grocery,” Moideen said. Moideen said most of the items he used to order were same-day items or items produced and packed on the same day, hence the food products he gets are fresh.

Moideen said that although online grocery shopping is convenient for busy men like him, it could still have its downside like when his order gets delivered late or if the item he needs is not available.