Thinking of how to start your own online grocery store? Grocery shopping is something all individuals and families engage in. Given lives have become increasingly busy, doing grocery runs and visiting stores can be a huge hassle and extremely time-consuming. People want convenient options given the growth in mobile usage and web access, online grocery shopping has emerged as the norm. Here’s How to start your own online grocery store using Blink.
Why start your own online grocery store?
This is seen a huge growth in online grocery delivery businesses, with more than 25% annual growth in online grocery sales since 2018 in the US. Moreover, most traditional retailers also now offer online ordering and either home delivery or curbside pickups. Increasingly, all grocery retailers, from large chains to small stores, are looking at options to build their online grocery stores, so they can tap into this rapidly growing market.
Online grocery delivery solutions are considered a win-win for both customers and retailers. Customers can order from the comfort of their homes and save valuable time. At the same time, retailers have seen growth in revenues, reduction in inventory levels and wastage, as well as improvement in customer satisfaction.
Starting your own online grocery business can be hugely profitable if done in the right way and with proper planning. While there’s always huge demand from grocery delivery and online grocery retailers, without good planning, you could struggle to bring in new customers, contain your costs, and generate strong profits. In the following section, we discuss some of the key areas you should focus on before starting your online grocery business.
Here’s how to start your own online grocery store:
1. Shortlist your product categories
You could have the best mobile or web app, the strongest marketing, and a wide logistics network but would still struggle to sell if your product list is not well defined or catering to customer requirements. This can be accomplished by understanding what your competitors are doing, what products are popular in the market, and how much customers are willing to pay for each type/category and brand of products. You should also aim to build collaborations with popular brands to attract customer segments and quickly gain popularity.
 2. Understand your customers
The key to any successful business is understanding the customer needs and ensuring your products address all the customer requirements. With an online grocery business, you need to define the key customer segments. These could include households looking for urgent grocery deliveries for cooking etc., or local offices, schools, university customers looking to buy snacks or tea/coffee/drinks, etc. Such segmentation could help you maintain the correct level of inventories and drive more targeted marketing campaigns. Having your own platform through Blink will also allow complete access to your customer data and also provide insightful analytics on customer buying habits and trends.
3. Define your delivery models
With online grocery businesses, multiple delivery models exist these days. Including home delivery vs. pick up from local store, and varying from 1-2 day delivery windows to ultra-quick 15-30 minute delivery windows. Defining key parameters upfront, including your delivery radius, the delivery timelines, and flexibility for home delivery vs. local pickup, will allow you to tailor your app and website accordingly, as well as ensure that your logistics network is designed to meet the key requirements.
4. Advantages of An Online Grocery Store
Round-the-clock operations
Having an online grocery store helps you escape the shackles of working hours. With Blink, you can make your own online grocery store in the form of an app or website and not limit your business to regular working hours. Without any extra effort, your services will be available to your customers 24*7. Research shows that people tend to get groceries in the evening, after their working hours, due to which they always end up ordering online. Having your own online store allows you to be the business your customers turn to when in need of immediate grocery restocking.
Wider customer reach
Having a brick-and-mortar business limits you to the customers that walk into your store. But having an online grocery store helps you target more than just the customers in your geographical location. No longer will you be one of the many grocery stores on the block that consumers can end up at. Having an online grocery store helps you target the locations you prefer, and your services will no longer be bound to a certain number of customers. All you need to do is find the right supermarket quick commerce platform for your store to bring in your new customers.
Contactless doorstep delivery
Online grocery delivery became a necessity in 2020 when the whole world went into lockdown. COVID-19 brought with it the restrictions and the fear of direct human interaction. Even as the lockdowns and restrictions slowly decrease, the extent to which humans interact with each other has fallen. There is an unconscious fear of being exposed to this disease, and people fear meeting each other. So by creating your online grocery store, you can now help reduce people’s fear by giving them the option of contactless delivery. Delivery drivers and your customers no longer need to have contact as payments are made online, and groceries can be safely left at the doorstep.
Automated inventory management
Unlike in-store grocery business, you now have an easier method of managing your stock. Online grocery stores don’t require a minimum quantity of stock. By using the Just In Time inventory strategy, you can run an efficient business and decrease grocery waste. Online grocery stores have all their transaction data online, making it easier for you to manage your inventory.
5. Reasons to Choose Blink for Your Online Store
Blink is ready-to-launch grocery business software called Blink for Supermarket made by an amazing team of software engineers, with built-in features to help grow your business. Blink provides businesses with a platform that helps kick-start their online grocery store very easily in less than a week. To illustrate the advantages of choosing Blink, here are some key reasons to make the decision easier.
Plug-and-play Solution
With the rise of COVID-19 and its variants, grocery stores are looking to improve their businesses with immediate solutions. Blink helps retailers to start their online grocery business with an ease that other platforms might lack. In less than a week, Blink can have your online store up and running, helping you generate more revenue. Blink provides ready-made websites and apps for both iOS and Android platforms.
Advanced Features
Blink is a very unique, ready-to-launch q-commerce platform due to a number of its built-in features. Some of these include:
Inventory Management
Blink has a built-in inventory management system that automatically updates stock quantities online.
Multi-currency Functionality
Blink allows your customers to purchase online in their local currency, and this feature can aid your businesses to expand to other regions.
Multiple Payment Options
Customers expect an online grocery store to provide the option to pay online. Blink platform provides you with multiple payment options, including cash-on-delivery, card payments, and bank transfers.
Delivery Schedule
Blink has an effective delivery management system, also known as preordering, that allows customers to schedule deliveries at their convenience. With this feature, customers can select their preferred date and time to receive their deliveries.
Customer Convenience
Blink allows your customers the ease to order from several platforms.
Website Ordering
Blink’s quick commerce enablement platform allows your customers to order directly from your branded website or mobile app.
Mobile App Ordering
Your customers will have the option to order directly from a branded, native mobile app that could be Android or iOS; the order placement time is about 30-seconds. The app gives customers the flexibility to order any time, anywhere. It also allows customers to stay signed in and not go through the hassle of logging in every time they need to order groceries.
Facebook and Instagram Ordering
Blink also provides you with Facebook and Instagram accounts that your customers can use to order groceries from. These social media platforms won’t take longer than a few minutes to take orders.
Phone Ordering
If your customers are a bit old school, Blink has you covered, allowing you to keep track of the orders you receive on the phone.
Robust Customer Support
Blink has an in-house team always ready to support you and your customers with any issues you may have while using our platform.
Conclusion
In the end, it’s really important that you pick the right platform for your online store. Blinks q-commerce enablement platform gives retailers the freedom to grow their business online without having to manage their orders manually. This is through a built-in inventory management system. Blink is a revolutionary online ordering system for grocery stores as it provides end-to-end direct online ordering and fleet management solutions. Blink makes grocery shopping easier for both you and your customers.
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