Kroger plans next month to make grocery shopping in Perrysburg a little more convenient by introducing its ClickList online ordering/​drive-thru pickup service at its new Marketplace store at 27322 Carronade Dr.

The exact start date has not been set, but a Kroger official in Columbus said it will occur in May. A few weeks later, the national grocery chain plans to offer the service at its Marketplace store in Sandusky.

ClickList, which debuted in 2014 at Kroger stores in other states and has been operating in 45 stores in Cincinnati, Louisville, and other areas across the United States, has yet to be offered in the company’s 125-store Columbus division, which includes northwest and central Ohio and southeast Michigan.

The Perrysburg store will be the first to get the service in the division because the store was recently built and the company could obtain the necessary space, parking, and zoning requirements to offer the service, said Kroger spokesman Jennifer Jarrell.

Kroger plans to offer the service at other Toledo-area stores eventually, but no timetable has been set, she added.

ClickList lets customers order groceries online, choosing from over 40,000 items, then for a $5 fee the customer can go to a special location outside the store and have the groceries waiting for them and loaded in their vehicle. The customer never has to leave the car.

“It’s definitely a time-saver. ... The only things you’re not able to get is liquor, prescriptions, hot foods, apparel, and some seasonal items,” Ms. Jarrell said.

However, customers can get beer and wine, tobacco products, frozen foods, perishables, meat, milk and eggs, deli items, and health and beauty products, and all of it can be ordered in any quantity. “There is no minimum order or price limit,” she said.

Customers will have to have a Kroger store account, the basic loyalty card that has been in use for many years. The account provides customers with store discounts, coupons, and tracks their fuel points.

To use ClickList, a customer logs into their account online at Kroger.com (there’s a link for ClickList on the website), selects the grocery items they want and the quantity, then the website will give them a one-hour window the next day during which their groceries can be picked up.

When picking up the groceries, customers will call a phone number indicating they have arrived. Payment is by either credit card or debit card, not with cash or checks or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, vouchers.

Ms. Jarrell said once an order is placed, all items will be stored appropriately, including refrigeration or freezing if needed until the customer comes to pick them up.

If a customer cannot make their scheduled pickup time, the store will attempt to schedule another time during hours of operation. If an order is not picked up by the end of the day, items will be returned to the sales floor, although Ms. Jarrell said a failure to pick up groceries rarely happens.

David Livingston, grocery market analyst in Milwaukee, said grocery chains have been experimenting with online ordering and pickup for nearly two decades.

“Most of them quit, but then they bring it back every few years to see if the market for it has matured,” he said.

Mr. Livingston said one issue is having enough customers who use it to make it worthwhile at a given store. “I don’t think anybody’s ever made a profit on this, but then you don’t want to be late to the game either,” he said.

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.

First Published April 19, 2016, 4:00 a.m.