July 31, 2020
Nao Kazuma
In Japan, due to the aging population and the increase in single-person households, the number of people who feel the inconvenience and difficulties in purchasing is increasing, especially among elderly people. Today, this purchasing problem has become even bigger due to the spread of the coronavirus.
Optician Go Shopping on Behalf of Customers
Meganesuper Co., the chain of optician's shop that deals contact lenses and hearing aids, as well as glasses, has been providing a shopping agent service throughout Japan from April 6th. They shop on behalf of people who feel anxious about going out in fear of coronavirus or are having problems to visit the store. They do all shopping for groceries, daily necessities, regardless of whether people buy glasses at the stores.
Anyone can use this service easily. If people just contact the call center and tell the desired goods and delivery date and time, the staff of the store would be dispatched from the nearest store and do some errands for their customers. Both reception time of telephone and correspondence time of shopping are from 10:00 to 18:00. The user must pay the product price and service charge of 2,500 yen excluding tax per hour. Customers are also able to have their glasses adjusted and cleaned when the goods are delivered.
By providing this service, the number of glasses purchaser at the stores are increasing. Meganesuper aims to improve the frequency of contact with local customers. Especially, this service is popular among the elderly.
Although the government of Japan declared a state of emergency on April 7 Meganesuper didn’t stop doing business. They accepted for reducing business hours or temporary closures at some stores. The optician company considered the glasses, contact lenses, and hearing aids are daily necessities, so they decided to continue the business with as the highest priority.
In addition to this service, they also provide free pick-up and drop-off services of their products to stores and hand-over services to a designated place. During these delivery services, the staffs wear face masks and disinfect equipment thoroughly. The users are requested not to use this shopping and delivery service if they have a fever over 37.5 Celsius degrees or if they are not feeling well. By doing so, they ensure the health of their customers and employees.
Meeting The Needs of The Shopping-Challenged
Since 2016, Meganesuper has been providing a visiting repairing service for glasses and hearing aid to offer the same high-quality products and services as stores at the customers’ homes, nursing homes, and hospitals for the people who could not come to stores easily. The service was well-received by users, family members, caregivers, and medical staff and Meganesuper has been receiving an average of 300 to 400 requests per month.
These infrastructures have led to the smooth introduction of new services this time. There are a lot of people with limited access to shopping facilities in Japan, so the shopping agent service will be needed even after coronavirus turmoil.
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