How to Start an Online Grocery Business

In light of the emerging challenges in starting and managing online grocery businesses ( https://www.yourretailcoach.in/online-grocery-e-grocery/ ), retail and eCommerce consulting firm - Your Retail Coach shares an insightful perspective on the subject of how to start an online grocery store business in this communiqué. The views shared here are intended for aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners with plans to venture into the online grocery business or grocery dark stores.

Business Model Development

Among other things, a good business model offers a unique and sustainable value proposition. There could be more than one value proposition in a business model. It identifies and maps how this value can be created and delivered going through a chain of capabilities. It identifies the potential revenue streams and major costs involved in making the value chain work. An online grocery business is also dependent on the services and solutions of external entities that are called key partners in a business model ( https://www.yourretailcoach.in/business-model-development/ ).

Most of the new online grocery startups follow market leaders. The common strategy for them is to adopt a successful model and replicate it at the local level with improvisations. This is a risky tactic because what works at global, regional, or domestic levels with a large number of customers may not be sustainable at smaller scales. Replicating the model of a direct competitor may yield the same results if there is no distinctive USP.

At this stage, when the business model is raw or in an abridged form, market research helps fill the informational gaps to consolidate the vision and strategies required to finalise a business model ( https://www.yourretailcoach.in/business-model-development/ ).

Inventory Planning

In starting an online or offline grocery store ( https://www.yourretailcoach.in/industries/retail-grocery-supermarket-kirana-consultants/ ), an important area of decision-making is finalising the volume of inventory to start the business with. This is where decisions are made pertaining to merchandising mix i.e. product categories to be offered, packaging sizes, number of brands, shelf and stock quantities, etc. These decisions carry a direct impact on initial setup costs in the form of investments into inventory. Once set into motion, this inventory cycle will run ceaselessly with adjustments made from time to time. These inventory-related decisions are influenced by marketing strategies, demand forecasting, store space and warehousing capabilities, capacity of suppliers, etc.

Layout Planning

Layout planning plays a vital role in the performance of online grocery businesses or dark stores ( https://www.yourretailcoach.in/setup-online-dark-store-ecommerce-business-consulting/ ). It affects the time and effort spent on inventory receiving, put away activities, picking up, packaging and labelling, and dispatch. These operations have a direct bearing on order fulfilment volume, speed and accuracy.

A well-planned layout helps grocery stores optimise their storing capabilities. When the storing capabilities are higher, the ability to fulfil orders is also higher within an inventory cycle. Logistics costs also lessen over time when the frequency of reorders reduces.

Having a good layout plan also converts into the ability of an online grocery store to show a wider variety of products and variants to customers which is of benefit as it helps customers get reminded of things that might have evaded their attention.

ECommerce Technology Solutions

Technology is a part and parcel of online grocery stores or dark retailing. The question is how the technology and automation requirements are determined and how the solutions are chosen, implemented, and maintained. Some of the important technology-related considerations for managing the operations of an online grocery business are:

· ECommerce Platform
· Shopping App/Website
· Payment Gateway
· Chatbots
· CRM, Customer Support
· Analytics
· Digital Marketing
· Order Management
· Inventory and Warehouse Management
· Shipping and Logistics
· Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS)
· Automated Picking and Packing
· Cyber Security

Financial and Commercial Planning

Commercial viability is not secured by the effectiveness of a business model. A business model is just a model or a vision. It does not speak in numbers. There are costs involved in creating and delivering the value propositions to the target segments. The projected sales and revenue figures must support the cost and the strategy to become profitable. These calculations require informed data on market share and demand projections. A comprehensive business plan helps reveal these and other financial and commercial details that provide an informed, quantified picture of the projected performance of a business idea. Areas of assessment covered in financial and commercial planning are CAPEX and OPEX requirements, projected income and expenditure statements, projected profits and loss statements, analysis of breakeven period and ROI, etc.

SOP-Based Operational Planning

ECommerce changed what customers expect from retailers on many fronts. The speed and accuracy of getting orders fulfilled on doorsteps is one of them. Before eCommerce, doorstep delivery applied only to deliveries by postal departments. Today, customers can have a pencil and eraser delivered to their doorsteps. When eCommerce touched the grocery business, it necessitated grocery retailers to deliver the benefits of eCommerce. This is only the front-end scenario and making this frontal show a reality calls for a robust, fail-safe operations framework. As veterans in the field of online business consulting, YRC recommends the use of SOPs for defining business processes and operations.

YourRetailCoach
Pune, India-411016
Phone: +91-9860-426-700
Email: consult@mindamend.net
Empowering Retail & E-commerce businesses worldwide.

YRC is a Management Consulting Firm with its presence across India & Dubai.
Get advise for Retail Business Consulting : https://www.yourretailcoach.in/contact/

This release was published on openPR.