My Small Basket and NCCC Shopping Experience

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

April 8, 2018 marks the day NCCC and Small Basket launched their online grocery shop in Davao City and like the usual (almost normal) person I tried it out. Here are my thoughts about this new shopping experience.

Online grocery shopping is not new in Davao City — I’ve known at least 2 companies that offered the same service before — but what makes this particular online shopping experience stand out (for me) is that it is brought to us by NCCC, Davao City’s very own homegrown supermarket.

To Start

Small Basket PH can be accessed through their website and their mobile app. I skipped the mobile app and opt to use my laptop. The website looks really clean and straightforward. There are two ways to find the products:

Small Basket and NCCC Web Interface

The first is through their “Categories” drop-down which can be found on their menu. You can hover your mouse over it and you’ll see all the available stuff you can buy (grouped neatly) so you can browse to your heart's content. If you wish to see all the items that are available for your purchase, just click (not hover) “Categories”. The second way is through their search box.

After a few minutes, I decided to go and buy something that is essential in my life and that is TUNA (laugh all you want, but I can eat this baby with TONS of red onions every single day). I searched for the product using their handy search box and I got the results with no problem. I searched for onions next, but not all pictures are uploaded yet which is understandable because they just started and there’s a disclaimer anyway, so that’s fine.

Surprisingly, you don’t have to register or log in to shop. There is actually an option to create an account and you get to earn points (1 point per 200 pesos), but I did not see it when I was buying the items. I didn't see any “register” or “sign up” links either, just a small human-shaped icon on the upper right corner of the website. Still, the transaction went smoothly. I was able to check out and pay for the stuff.

Checkout

The website is pretty straightforward so I did not have any problem with it. The only thing that bugged me for a bit was when I was entering information during the checkout process. You need to set a delivery date. It will not let you proceed otherwise. I did not see the form right away so I spent a few seconds trying to figure out what went wrong. The said form/field/button was actually just above the list of your purchases, but the color did not stand out — even after the prompt — so I did not immediately see it. It may be because the site is new, and they did not implement their interface in its full glory yet, but, that’s something minor that I think they will be improving in the future.

They also have a lot of payment method options which is very convenient. You can pay through debit, credit, COD, GCash and they accept PayPal too! (my preferred payment method). No extra and unnecessary forms had to be filled. Just the essential stuff – name, mobile number, address and your payment method info – so overall, checkout is a breeze.

Delivery Fee

The delivery is free! And the minimum purchase is only 200 pesos! Awesome right? Free shipping for a purchase that’s worth 200 is unheard of (to me at least) until this day. Fast food chains charge for deliveries, but Small Basket will deliver it for FREE! This is one of the BEST THINGS EVER!

Furthermore, you can schedule your items to be delivered on the day (at a later time of course) you hit that checked out button.

Delivery

Small Basket and NCCC New Delivery Schedule
As of April 2018

On the day the items were scheduled to be delivered, I received a call from Small Basket confirming the details I entered on their website the day before — address and time. I had mine scheduled on their 11am to 12nn timeslot. 12:00nn passed and my items aren’t with me yet, but to be fair, my address is a bit difficult to find, so that may be a factor for the delay and I will not hold it against them. I will have to try to have some items delivered on a more specific address the next time just to check. It would have been good if they’d included an additional field for “remarks” during checkout. That way, people can specify landmarks to make it easier for their staff to find the location. They made calls to ask for landmarks and directions and my items arrived after a few minutes.

Products and Packaging

Packaged just like in the supermarket. My tuna arrived in excellent condition and I had no issues with the transaction.

Overall Experience

Photo by frankie cordoba on Unsplash

Would I shop using Small Basket again? DEFINITELY! It’s a lot more convenient than going out to buy groceries. Other people may still like the feel of walking on the isles of the supermarket and running their hands on the items that they want to purchase — and there's nothing wrong with that — but for me, clicking on the items I want to buy, paying online and then just chilling at home while waiting for my items to arrive is a fantastic thing! There are areas that can be improved, but overall it was a pleasant online shopping experience. The convenience that Small Basket and NCCC brings is just perfect and I will definitely make use this service.