Every business has to enter the digital region in this lockdown period. Only through online sales, we can reach out to the people. In this pandemic period, the most needed online platform is the online grocery platform. Covid-19 has accelerated this industry and has made the demand for online groceries go high. According to a recent survey, about 70% of buyers will prefer online grocery platforms for purchasing groceries. So every budding entrepreneur has started to focus on developing an e-commerce grocery store.
The business model of an online grocery platform
Before you start your online grocery platform, you need to understand the business model of the e-commerce grocery store. Every online grocery platform will deliver the finest quality grocery items at the door-step of the buyers. The buyers can either visit the grocery e-commerce website or the grocery app to buy the grocery items. They can either pay online or can pay at the time of delivery. Once the order is placed by the buyer, the admin will allocate the order to the nearby vendor and will intimate the vendor about the order. The vendor will deliver the products to the buyer through the delivery system. The admin will receive the payment and will deduct his commission and will transfer the rest to the vendor. This is how an online grocery platform works.
Factors to consider for starting an e-commerce grocery store
Have a clear plan on what to sell
An e-commerce grocery store can have a wide range of products. Some products will be fast-moving and some may not. Some products will have fewer expiration periods (i.e) for 2 to 3 days and some will have for a year. Here you need to be clear on which type of product you are going to focus on. Some products are banned in a particular locality. You should not have those products on your online grocery platform. You need to test the market demand for the products you are going to have in your e-commerce grocery store.
Are you going to manufacture the products on your own?
You can have two options for having the products in your grocery ecommerce platform. Either you can manufacture your products or you can procure them from others. If you plan to manufacture then you need more investment to arrange the equipment to manufacture and a place to store your inventory. If you plan to procure the products then you need to find the right suppliers. You need to make a crucial decision in this aspect. Only then you can move further in building your e-commerce grocery store.
Select where to sell
This is another important factor you need to look into when you are building your e-commerce grocery store. You need to analyze the area that has a high demand for online grocery platforms. Selling your product among people who are less aware of what an online grocery platform is about is a waste of time. For this, you need to invest more in your marketing and promotional activities and make them aware of your e-commerce grocery store. But there is already a demand for the platform then it will take less time to reach them and you can get greater sales. So give more importance in setting the area to sell the products.
Focus on how to ship
The most challenging aspect of the e-commerce grocery store business is delivering the product at the right time. As most of the grocery products are perishable, we need to ensure that the products are delivered quickly so that we can maintain the freshness of the products. Select the appropriate delivery service that can give fast delivery. Also, check with your budget and go for the best delivery service provider.
Prepare your delivery charge list
Customers prefer quick delivery. In this case, be clear in your terms and conditions that fast delivery will cost extra and have a perfect delivery charges plan. You need to also consider the climate as in summer the chances of products getting spoiled is high compared to winter. Before fixing the charges we need to consider the labor, packaging, storing, shipping, or reshipping and also the profit. Without a clear tariff, you cannot expect good returns through your online grocery platform. Put more effort into understanding the competitors pricing and fix your price effectively.
Build a strong e-commerce grocery store
So far you have done all preliminary aspects that are essential to successfully run an online grocery platform. Now the most important factor in building a perfect online grocery platform. This platform is going to bring you new business and you are going to take the profit out of this platform. So you must build an e-commerce grocery store that has all the essential features. Check with your competitors’ website and make sure you did not miss any of the technologies or the features they have. Focus more on the UI and UX so that the users can experience great shopping with your e-commerce grocery store.
Market your online grocery platform
Promotion is the key aspect we need to concentrate on. Any business can be a success only when it has a greater reach. The more the e-commerce grocery store is visible, the more visitors will visit your grocery e-commerce website. When there is huge traffic to your grocery e-commerce website then you can expect some genuine leads. Using those leads you can convert them into good sales. Several ways of marketing can give you good results. One such platform is the social media platform. Each social media platform has more active users so posting an ad about your online grocery platform on those platforms will get you greater reach and visibility. Also, make sure that you have developed an SEO friendly grocery e-commerce website so that you can easily get ranked in all search engines.
Conclusion
Never under-estimate the power of online business. All facts prove that this is the era of the digital market. Get a perfect and reliable online grocery platform and land in the right place.
