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Things to Keep in Mind Before Starting Your Online Grocery Store

Home Blog COVID-19 Resources Things to Keep in Mind Before Starting Your Online Grocery Store
Given the busy work schedules and lack of time to go out and shop for groceries, online grocery stores are gaining traction. With the growing popularity of online grocery shopping, the market value of online grocery in India is expected to reach ₹1,170 billion in 2024. Therefore, it would be fair to say that the field holds great growth potential, provided you set it up in the right way.  Here are a few important things you need to consider while creating an online grocery store: 

1. Choose the right ecommerce platform 

This is a crucial decision to make. Choose a flexible, robust, and multi-faceted ecommerce platform like WooCommerce that provides scope for future expansions while satisfying your current store requirements. The degree of scalability cannot be avoided especially in the case of grocery stores as the product provisions may significantly change over a period and shifting the entire store won’t be a financially viable option. 

2. Decide the area of operation 

The area of operation includes the locations your online store will be catering to. This would depend on multiple factors like the region’s demographics, the consumer preferences in that area, and an analysis of the competition in that area. Your area of operation could be anything, from your immediate locations to the entire city. Do shortlist the locations where you can provide services effectively.   Based on your delivery services budget, you need to implement a minimum delivery-time module due to the perishable nature of groceries. It is recommended to cater to a limited area initially and later expand across other areas as your business grows. 

3. Choose the right delivery module 

In a grocery business, delivery operations play a major role and define your business’s success rate to a great extent.   A strong and effective delivery module will help you make deliveries in minimum time possible and keep your delivery expenses in check. Optimize the number of employees, their delivery routes, and timings, their travel reimbursements, to avoid their repeated excursions to the same locations.  Above everything, your delivery operations should be integrated with the live tracking techniques to level up your online grocery delivery system.  

4. Build a strong supplier network 

Your online grocery system largely depends on your supplier network, which should be reliable and strong. The suppliers should be able to cater to the needs of your customers at the right time. It is good to ensure that your suppliers are reliable, and you have a backup for each supplier.  

5. Define your USPs 

For any online store, be it grocery or any other, ‘free delivery’ is one of the common selling points that attracts customers.  With the increasing competition, it is essential to formulate your own Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) which could be discounts, lowest price, referral points, fast delivery or any other. Your USPs should attract more and more users to your business, ultimately helping you succeed in your business.  

6. Integrate multiple payment options 

Always choose a platform that supports flexible payment integration options. Because customers always look for multiple payment integrations and have varied preferences. While some may be comfortable with Cash on Delivery (COD) option, others may feel digital payment methods with cash-back offers are more convenient.  

7. Mobile optimization 

Insider Intelligence expects retail mobile commerce sales to account for 43.4% of the total ecommerce sales in the year 2023, up from 41.8% in 2022. Along similar lines, many people use smartphones to place online orders for groceries. Given this, mobile optimization is your online grocery store’s important aspect.   Most website platforms have responsive ecommerce themes that adjust themselves as per the device. However, besides default application, it is essential to optimize your website for mobile phones and rearrange product displays and sidebars so that they can be viewed properly on smartphones. 

Go that extra mile 

Online grocery stores offer a plenty of benefits over brick-and-mortar stores. If there is just one thing that the former lacks, it is adding a personal touch to the customer experience. But this can be handled easily. The online grocery store owners need to put in efforts and go that extra mile for satisfying customers and generating and retaining customer loyalty.  Ensure that your store is impeccable in terms of clean layout, easy accessibility, and timely delivery. And the customer expectations are met properly when they interact with the store for the first time.  Once your basic setup is up and running, you can introduce subscriptions, discounts, memberships and more to make your store even more lucrative.   
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