How to buy online on Dollar General: the traditional US retail chain that bets on an omnichannel strategy

Dollar General is a U.S.-based company located in urban, suburban and especially rural areas of the United States where you can get products at a low price. It is headquartered in Tennessee, but has more than 19,000 stores throughout the United States, except in Hawaii, Montana and Idaho.

They have an online store and a mobile app in order to compete with giants such as Walmart, Costco or Amazon, although they are still strongly committed to the physical experience as their advantage is to have stores located at street level in areas with little competition.

What is dollar general

Dollar General Corporation was founded in 1939 in Scottsville, Kentucky owned by James Luther Turner and Cal Turner (father and son). Its’ first name was “J.L turner and Son”. In 1955 it changed to Dollar General Corporation, the company went public in 1968.

Their business model is focused on frequent consumption of essential items at low prices and in small formats, such as:

• Canned and refrigerated foods
• Cleaning products
• Cosmetics and toiletries
• Non-prescription drugs
• Basic clothing
• Stationery and household items

Technological advances in Dollar General

They have started technological iniciatives such as DG Fresh, their program to improve refrigerated food distribution.

They also included self-service checkout counters in many of its stores to improve efficiency and reduce labor costs. However, this measure resulted in a significant increase in losses due to theft and transaction errors. After analyzing millions of transactions with artificial intelligence tools, the company decided to reverse this strategy:

• Completely eliminated self-checkouts in 300 stores with high loss rates.
• In approximately 9,000 stores, converted self-checkouts to hybrid models with staff assistance.
• Limited self-checkout use to a maximum of five items per customer in another 4,500 stores.

They also used AI to optimize thier suply chain and inventory management.

How to buy on Dollar General

They are committed to an omnichannel strategy between their physical stores, their website and their mobile application (for iOS and google Play Store)

To buy on Dollar General:

1. Enter their website or mobile app and explore all their categories
2. Create an account: althoug there is no need to create an account to be allowed to buy, it is recommended in order to improve your experience as a cliente. Having a personal accounts allows you to save addresses, access to digital coupons and track your orders.
3. Once you have decided which products you want to buy, you have two options:
   • Add them to the cart: in case you select home delivery. However is important to take into account that this option is not available for the full products catalog. 
   • Ship it: in case you opt for their service DG Pickup, which is perfect if you prefer to pick your order up in a physical store. In this situation you will have to add your ZIP Code and choose a store near you. 
4. Use the digital coupons: Search the “digital coupons” section to apply them automatically by clicking on “Clip”
5. You are allowed to pay with a debit/credit card, some specific pre-payment cards and in some cases, PayPal, depending on the shipping method.

If your order is thought to be delivered to your home, you will received an email confirmation to track your order. On the other hand, if you have to pick up the order at the store, they will notify you when it is ready.

Their app allows costumers to make shopping lists, product scanning for prices and coupons, and get access to personalized offers.

Image: Depositphotos