Home delivery of groceries is not yet a very popular service among consumers. One reason for the slow progress has been the time‐consuming and expensive ordering process. In recent years, Internet‐based solutions have solved most of the problems related to the order transaction process – making ordering simpler, cheaper and faster. However, there are still a lot of unsolved problems in the e‐grocery business. One of the biggest obstacles is inefficient home delivery. This paper examines how different solutions for goods receipt affect home‐delivery efficiency. Different alternatives for receiving the goods are presented and the service levels of these concepts are described from the consumer’s point of view. In addition, the costs for the e‐grocer are studied. The efficiency of using a reception box is demonstrated by simulating two alternative receiving concepts.

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In the grocery business online start-ups, e-grocers, have in the last few years developed new business models to challenge the traditional bricks-and-mortar supermarkets. However, many of the big players in the e-grocery business, such as Peapod and Webvan in the USA, still operate in the red. They have financed rapid growth by collecting hundreds of millions of dollars from investors. These huge investments have enabled the e-grocers to enter the grocery market but, on the other hand, ineffective operations have used up capital on operating expenses. If the e-grocers want to become serious challengers to the traditional bricks-and-mortar business, they need to cut operational costs dramatically and fast. This paper illustrates some basic principles for cutting operational costs in the e-grocery business. The focus is on picking efficiency and order assembly costs. Solutions for achieving better picking efficiency are discussed. In addition, one detailed example of how a grocery distribution centre for efficient picking could be designed is presented.

Currently, efforts in the e‐grocery business focus on improving the purchase transaction and physical distribution of goods. However, simply improving ordering and fulfillment does not make e‐grocery shopping a viable competitor to the current supermarket business model. To become a profitable growth business, the e‐grocers have to offer their customers more value. It is not enough to offer customers a range of physical products. A range of new meaningful services is also needed. This article investigates how such new, breakthrough services can be developed. A framework for systematically examining customer demand and identifying corresponding services is presented. The importance of the e‐grocer being able to offer the right mix of services to meet the customers' individual and changing needs is demonstrated. Concrete examples of both new services and a service mix are described.

Purpose - Healthcare productivity is a growing issue in most Western countries where healthcare expenditure is rapidly increasing. Therefore, accurate productivity metrics are essential to avoid sub-optimization within a healthcare system. The purpose of this paper is to focus on healthcare production system productivity measurement. Design/methodology/approach - Traditionally, healthcare productivity has been studied and measured independently at the unit, organization and system level. Suggesting that productivity measurement should be done in different levels, while simultaneously linking productivity measurement to incentives, this study presents the challenges of productivity measurement at the different levels. The study introduces different methods to measure productivity in healthcare. In addition, it provides background information on the methods used to measure productivity and the parameters used in these methods. A pilot investigation of productivity measurement is used to illustrate the challenges of measurement, to test the developed measures and to prove the practical information for managers. Findings - The study introduces different approaches and methods to measure productivity in healthcare. Practical implications - A pilot investigation of productivity measurement is used to illustrate the challenges of measurement, to test the developed measures and to prove the practical benefits for managers. Originality/value - The authors focus on the measurement of the whole healthcare production system and try to avoid sub-optimization. Additionally considering an individual patient approach, productivity measurement is examined at the unit level, the organizational level and the system level.