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A better shopping experience: How Woolworths at Work is supporting ECEC
Freya Lucas
Aug 02, 2022
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When Jarad Nass joined Woolworths at Work in April 2019 he had a bold vision to reimagine a new way for businesses of all kinds, in particular the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector, to source all their fresh food, kitchen, cleaning supplies and business essentials.
“Typically business to business (B2B) suppliers are strong on procurement experience, and lack the shopping experience, or vice versa,” he explained.“We are bringing the two experiences together for an overall better business experience, while bringing more value.”
The result is a dedicated online grocery shopping and procurement platform built to help businesses shop, receive, reconcile and pay for their products and services, one that is designed to put control of this process in the hands of the business, whilst providing value beyond the buying of groceries for delivery.
Tailored ECEC solutions
The team at Woolworths at Work have carefully considered the unique needs of the ECEC sector, creating solutions for services of all types and sizes.
“We have built many features that make a difference to our customers, however the main difference is giving back time to the staff responsible for buying and engaging with groceries,” Mr Nass explained.
“We know that staff are time poor and are focused on caring for and educating the children so our proposition is designed to make it as time-saving as possible.”
Special additions like lines of credit, for times when cash flow is tight, or when there are delays at support office level, show the consideration that the team has for the reality of day to day life in services.
‘The service allows customers to shop, arrange a suitable delivery (or pickup from a store), reconcile purchases, manage accounts, and pay, all via our digital footprint,” Mr Nass explained. “We can even arrange an in store shopping card connected to the line of credit for those times where a supermarket visit is required.”
For larger organisations, customers can meet with a Woolworths at Work business specialist who can help them to set up a platform for all services in their network, which is aligned with their business structure and broader goals.
Feedback driven platform
When developing the Woolworths at Work platform, understanding the unique needs of various business types, including ECEC, was a priority for the team.
“We built the ECEC aspect of the business primarily on the feedback of the ECEC sector,” Mr Nass shared “and therefore the proposition is designed to help with the challenges that the sector faces.”
“We know for example that if a service doesn't have the delivery before 9am on a Monday morning, then the site is put behind for the rest of the week. We have set up two hour delivery windows to address just that, because traditionally our windows were three hours and the risk of arriving too early would be equally a challenge for the sites.”
Adding value to the ECEC sector
Beyond offering a platform and service which understands the unique needs of ECEC, Woolworths at Work is committed to giving back to the sector through partnerships and services.
The partnership with Nutrition Australia, which offers free webinars and guidance for ECEC services is just one example.
Woolworths at Work has also removed delivery fees for next day orders over $99*, removed packaging fees, and added “bagless to bench” where orders are packed directly into delivery crates, without using paper or plastic bags**, supporting ECEC services to meet sustainability goals.
To learn more about Woolworths at Work visit the website where you can sign up and shop instantly.
*Orders over $99, Excludes Partner Delivery. Subject to availability, excludes remote locations.
**Not available if you tick 'Leave unattended' at checkout. For food safety reasons, certain produce, chilled and frozen items will need to be packed into produce or reusable bags.
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