This growth-driven E-Commerce business has ample opportunities for smaller or individual players who wish to cater to a more localized customer base by setting up their own online grocery stores.
India, now-a-days is a market with a huge potential for online businesses. The credit largely goes to the technological advancements that people have in the form of the convenience of purchasing anything and everything just by a few clicks on their smartphones. This is why the online grocery business is flourishing and has become one of India’s biggest success stories.
Operating on the most competitive platforms in today’s time with an ever increasing list of pan-Indian corporate players in a race for the $900 million pie, the e-commerce sector is all set for 2020, to be valued at more than $100 billion. In addition, this growth-driven E-Commerce business has ample opportunities for smaller or individual players who wish to cater to a more localized customer base by setting up their own online grocery stores.
Steps in planning to set up one’s own profitable store:
∙Identifying the Target Market
The first and foremost thing to do is to fetch the most appropriate market for your store. Understanding the eating and buying patterns of people in a particular zone is very vital as it allows you to stock fast-moving items in advance and minimize the chances of wastage. A delivery periphery also needs to be planned accordingly in order to ensure quick delivery and fresh items especially in case of perishable items having a limited shelf life.
∙Selecting the appropriate Theme
Customers are very choosy and they are picky about the appearance of the products as well. On an average, a website has just 5-7 seconds to capture the attention of the customers during which the decision to proceed further or to exit is taken. If the product is not displayed elegantly, then convincing the customers to buy it becomes a tough job.
∙Adding necessary Features/Tools to the website
Creating a dynamic website which is quick to load, mobile friendly and with several extra features can boom the business efficiently. One shouldn’t miss out adding features like:
✔ Payment Gateway
✔ Product Management Tools
✔ Online Tools to Monitor the Digital Performance
✔ Discount Coupons/ Vouchers
✔ Social Integration Tools
✔ Courier Tracking
✔ Order Management Tools
✔ Logistics Management
✔ Marketing Tools
If budget is no bar then one can even consider developing a mobile app for both Apple and Android devices with a free cashback for the first time customers as a tactic of sales promotion.
∙ Confronting the Challenges
Competing with well-funded brands
Competing with highly-funded brands like Grofers or BigBasket which use celebrities to market their brand, becomes really tough. So at this point, the best approach to excel in the business can be to start small by focusing only on a single segment; serving the segmented audience, monitoring, analyzing and learning from the specific market.
Investing through a right Marketing Channel
Taking every decision wisely is a prerequisite. One should have a clear sight of where to invest and for this, developing a well-planned strategy that requires the least investment will be helpful.
One should always look for an expert who can guide to invest in the right marketing channel if one does not have the skills to decide the best way.
The Instant Profit Maximization Theory
To increase the profits or to grow big fast, the theory to be adopted depends on multiple factors. Not every new business in the market becomes successful in earning a pretty good revenue, brand name and reputation. Becoming a successful venture requires uniqueness, best quality and service, hard work and most importantly the patience to delay gratification.
∙Key Strategies for booming the business at a faster pace
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
In the virtual world of E-Commerce, the most powerful marketing strategy for promoting a business turns out to be the SEO. SEO mainly depends on a couple of factors like- How well-optimized your site is? What is the site’s domain authority? How is the content on your website perceived by your audience? Etc.
The search engine (predominantly Google) needs to find value in whatever you are offering online. Only then can you get on SERP and rank for the relevant keywords. Use your SEO strategy, let people find value in your website and make your business grow.
Promotion through Social Media
Yet another valid and very successful channel of promotion for your online groceries is the social media. With so many shared posts, your customers won’t get the luxury of probing. Alternatively, you can and should do that for them. Every shared post should reflect your purpose.
Interaction and engagement with your potential customers is the key. Once you have attracted the attention, it will be very easy for you to convert them into your list of loyal customers.
Offers, a way to get the customers back for another purchase-
Another way of getting your customers back for their subsequent purchase can be offers or Push Marketing in technical terms, through the mode of Emails, Whatsapp and SMS. It’s just like a loyalty program wherein you give your customers the credits for individual purchases, giving them a reason to visit your store yet again.
Using all the above mentioned strategies effectively along with the assistance of an expert for guiding you to funding in the right channels, you can set up your own online grocery store which will scale its way to higher profitability easily.