How to order a vegetable box

More and more people are using the internet to do their shopping from the comfort of their own armchairs, including getting a variety of fresh seasonal vegetables delivered to their door. In this online guide, you’ll learn how to join them by ordering a vegetable box online. We will take you step-by-step through what you need to do to choose your box of fresh vegetables, set up an account, and place your first order.

 

We’re going to use Riverford Organics as an example of this kind of website. However, there are other similar sites such as Abel & Cole that you can visit to buy your vegetables, and a variety of other grocery shopping opportunities.

 

 

 

Step 1: Open a browser tab and go to http://www.riverford.co.uk (or click the link to the left, which will open in a new window). As you’ll see from their home page, Riverford do much more than just sell vegetables, and once you’ve decided on a vegetable box you might want to spend some time browsing before you finally place your order. But, for now, let’s have a look at the vegetable boxes.

 

Step 2: Click on boxes in the menu towards the top of the screen.

 

 

Step 3: If you know the size and type of vegetable box you’re looking for, scroll down the page a little way until you come to vegetable boxes, to see the variety of boxes on offer. Choose one that suits your household, from one person to a large family, and jump to Step 6 in this guide. If you want a little help and advice, go on to Step 4.

 

 

Step 4: Click on need help choosing a box? in the right-hand side of the screen.

 

 

Step 5: Click on the two icons that represent your answers to the two quick questions: ‘how many people are you feeding?’ and ‘how many times a week do you cook?’

 

The selection will be automatically narrowed down to those boxes that are most likely to suit your needs.

 

 

Step 6: From here, you can make a choice of the box that most appeals to you. Clicking on the box of your choice will bring up the likely contents of your box for the week, together with some alternatives for you to look at. For some boxes, you might be prompted to see what’s in your box from your local farm by putting in your postcode and clicking on go to my local farm. When you do this you’re able to see the contents of the box that will be delivered to you.

 

 

Step 7: If you like what you see, simply click on add to your basket. Doing this will save the details of this item until you’re ready to go to the checkout, just as if you’d put a product into your shopping trolley. The default quantity is set to one box, but you can increase this, or reduce it again, by clicking on + or - next to the quantity.

 

You’ll see the contents of your basket at the top of the page on the right-hand side, where you can also make changes to the goods you’ve selected by clicking on edit your basket and then clicking on + or – next to the item. After editing your basket you can click to choose to continue shopping or checkout.

 

 

Step 8: When you’re ready, click on the checkout button. Don’t worry, just as in a supermarket or shop, you still have time to change your mind and reduce or increase the quantities. Moving on to this screen will prompt a ‘Security Warning’.

 

Click on Yes so that you ‘view only the content that was delivered securely’, and continue to do this every time you see this warning repeated. Before entering any personal or payment information online, always check that the website is secure. This is indicated by a yellow padlock icon at the top of the screen and a website address that starts with ‘https://’ (the ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’).

 

 

Step 9: As you’ll be new to their website, you’ll be asked to enter your delivery postcode to make sure that Riverford are able to deliver to you. Enter your postcode and click on next to be taken to your delivery schedule. To the right of the screen you’ll see a ’5-stage tick sheet’ with your delivery postcode ticked, and your delivery schedule highlighted. You’ll also see a picture of your vegman or lady, their name, telephone number and an email link to them.

 

At this point you’ll be asked to decide, by using a drop-down menu called ‘frequency’, how often you would like to receive a box like this, and the date you would like this first delivery. Select ‘one off’ from the frequency menu, and an appropriate delivery date. Once you’re happy with your choices, click on set up this order now.

 

 

Step 10: This screen asks for your delivery address where you enter your name, delivery address, contact phone number, special instructions required to help find you, and instructions for where Riverford should leave the box if no one is in. (You must fill in all this information, but don’t worry, if you miss an item you’ll be prompted and not allowed to go further until you’ve completed the page.) When you’re ready, click next to move on. Delivery address on the ’5-stage tick sheet’ will now also be ticked.

 

Step 11: At the payment screen, you’re asked to confirm your billing address (which must be the address registered to your credit card). This need not be the same as the delivery address, but if it is you can copy it over, or enter a different one if necessary. You’re asked then to enter an email address twice (a second time to confirm accuracy) and password, which you should choose carefully so that other people can not guess it.

 

Step 12: You’re almost there! If you don’t want to receive information about your box contents or Riverford offers and promotions, click in the check box to remove the tick. If you do, and you’re a vegetarian, you can click a second box so that they ‘try not to send you mail about meat’. There’s a final dropdown menu asking how you first heard about Riverford; click to make your choice. Finally there’s a window where you can type in details of any offer or promotion that you might be responding to.

 

Step 13: You’re now ready to check your order. Clicking here brings up a screen where you’ll see your full order details, and be offered two options for payment:

 

Click on the second option for a one-off payment. (Note that there is a small surcharge for card payments.)

 

Step 14: Choose your card type from the drop-down menu, and then click one-off payment.

 

 

Step 15: Enter your card details on the secure payment page. (You’re still able to change your mind and empty your basket right up until the end of this step, by clicking CANCEL PURCHASE at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.)

 

Step 16: When you’re ready, click on MAKE PAYMENT. At this point, if you’ve signed up for 3-D Secure – an added layer of security for online credit and debit card transactions – such as Visa’s ‘Verified by Visa’ and MasterCard’s ‘SecureCode’, you might be asked for another password. Enter this as required. Your order will start to be processed as soon as you’ve entered your payment information successfully and you’ll see a confirmation message on screen. You’ll also receive a confirmation email and a separate email containing your online account login details.