How you can start your own online Grocery store? Step by Step Guide

Jisha
12 min readMay 25, 2021

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This article will discuss the Online Grocery store and all points from beginning to end to launch a successful Grocery store in the market.

Online Grocery stores are booming all over the world. Many business owners and Entrepreneur are now making a high investment in the online Grocery store. Some grocery store owners are now converting their offline store business to an online Store to increase the profit ratio of the business.

Online Grocery store
Online Grocery store

The advancement in technology is considered a boon for the people as well as also fr the service providers. Nowadays people are loving the online shopping system because, by this method, user can easily check the various grocery item and their details by sitting on their couch, add items to the cart, order it, make the payments and boom the items are delivered at your doorsteps.

The innovation like the Internet and Smartphones has changed the life of the people or in other words, we can say that it can make the work easier for the customers as well as for the service providers.

Without wasting much time, let move to the main topic, “Online Grocery Store”.

What is an Online Grocery Business?

An Online Grocery Business is a Mobile app or website that offers platforms to sell all groceries online through an online store. Anyone like the owner of a supermarket or a brick and mortar store owners can be a seller.

Online Grocery Store
Online Grocery Store

Any Entrepreneurs can invest in a startup and starts his online grocery store (Website or Mobile app) and deliver the groceries to the customer's Doorstep conveniently.

The online Grocery store offers customers the comfort, accessibility and affordability to buy and get the items easily.

What are the benefits of having an Online Grocery Business?

Online Grocery Businesses are very beneficial for the Customers as well as for the Owners.

If you are running an offline Grocery Store then it is a must require for you to have a personal app for your business that helps in boosting sales and increasing brand awareness among the targeted users.

There are various benefits of having an Online Grocery Store which makes many of the entrepreneurs invest in the Online grocery web / mobile app development.

Benefits of having an Online Grocery Store for the Store Owners:-

➺ Having an Online Grocery store, it makes easy for the store owner to manage inventory as well as the orders.

➺ An online grocery store can enhance convenience. As in an offline store, the store owners has to manage the queue, cash counter and more but an online store can make things convenient for the owner.

➺ An online Grocery store can analyze customer behaviour and helps you deliver personalized offers by sending them an online notification.

➺ With the help of the online store, you can easily enhance customer loyalty by offering them some loyalty program.

➺ The online Grocery store can help in reducing the overheads. In an offline store, you have to hire some of the best people who can perform the challenging task and manage the store properly, increasing the overhead. But online store reduces the overheads.

➺ An online Grocery store can easily help in Order tracking and use t for future reference.

➺ An Online Grocery Store can help you to offer various payment methods like a credit card, Paypal, debit card and more.

➺ By having an online grocery store, your store can be available 24/7.

➺ You can deliver fresh groceries to your customer’s doorstep.

➺ The online Grocery store helps in attracting people.

➺ Grocery delivery app is also helpful in better customer relationship management.

Benefits Of Online Grocery Store
Benefits Of Online Grocery Store

Benefits of having an Online Grocery Store for the Customers:-

➺ For customers, an Online Grocery store helps in saving time on transportation as now it is not required for them to visit any grocery store.

➺ Customers or users can easily check the grocery through the online store without standing in the long queues.

➺ Users can easily check the grocery as well as save the grocery list. Repeat the order whenever required.

➺ With an online grocery store, users can buy the grocery product in bulk without worrying. The grocery item is delivered to their doorstep.

➺ Online Grocery stores are available 24/7, so customers can access the services at any time.

➺ An online Grocery store can help in avoiding multiple trips to the grocery store because they can access the virtual cart services for adding the products.

➺ These online grocery stores can help users to easily make the comparison about the products and specifications without facing many difficulties.

➺ It is very easy for the customers, to easily find the products using the search and filter bars. Along with that, customers can also track their spending.

Step By Step Guide: Launching a successful Online Grocery app

Let me list down, some of the important steps of launching a successful Online Grocery app in the market. Let's get started:-

Step 1:- Identify the Target Location or the Audience.

Target Audience
Target Audience

The very initial steps are to get ready for the supermarket business. The Grocery item includes the fruits, vegetables, milk, pulses and other grocery items.

It is highly recommended to choose the small delivery radius at the beginning of the business. It is very important to analyse the market and identify the market or location you are going to target as well as beneficial for your business at the initial stage.

You have to identify the behaviours of your targeted audience like their buying patterns. This will help you to plan the items which you need to sell faster and keep in the stocks to minimize the wastage of the grocery.

You can also collaborate with some of the grocery stores and provides them with the items conveniently.

Step 2:- Identify the delivery region and warehouse location.

Warehouse location
Warehouse location

After selecting the targeted audience, you need to select the delivery region. If you want to make fresh grocery delivery then the region needs to be selective in the limited region.

Based on the grocery business, the targeted locations and delivery region, you need to plan to set up the office, warehouse or near to the collaborated grocery stores.

Step 3:- Market Research and Check out the competition.

Market Research and Check out the competition
Market Research and Check out the competition

It is very important to do market research before setting up the grocery business. This will help you to set up the time list, the price of the items and to plan a working model of your business.

This will lead you to better decisions making and also keep updated with the demanding grocery items.

To make your business successful it is very important to check the competitions in the market, their working pattern, their methods, the features list they provide in their online app and more. By this, you can improve in your services and provides better services.

Step 4:- Finalize the Company Name

Finalize the Company Name
Finalize the Company Name

The most challenging steps for you is to decide the name of your business. The name of the business is the heart of the business. The business names must be short, original and catchy which helps in getting more customers attention towards your business.

Step 5:- Make the Registration of the business.

Make the Registration of the business
Make the Registration of the business

After choosing the business name, it's time to register your company. Once the registration formalities are complete, you are ready to open a business account at any bank.

You can easily take the permission of the authorities and get all the types of tax submission.

Step 6:- List down app features.

List down app features
List down app features

The Feature list is the most important part because these things make the online grocery store extraordinary and different from all the other available solution.

You have to make sure that your online grocery store has a stunning design and layout, easy sign-in options, convenient navigation, push notifications, live tracking of the delivery and smooth payment facilities.

Don’t worry about the features list because I am going to list down some of the best feature lists which you can add to your online grocery store.

Step 7:- Choose the best App development company

Choose the best App development company
Choose the best App development company

After deciding all the things, it's time to choose the Best App development company for the development of your online grocery store. You need to decide whether to launch an app on Android, IOS or both based on your target audience.

You need to choose the best App Development company which will help you to provide the best online platforms in the market.

Here I am going to list done some of the points which you have to keep in mind before thing the best App Development company:-

◘ Check out their past projects or portfolio.

◘ Ask the company for the client reference, so you can directly take the feedback from their clients.

◘ Ask for the technology stack they are using.

◘ Ask them about their app development process and the team experience.

◘ Ask them the approximate cost of development and also ensure the services they provide along with the development of the mobile app.

Step 8:- Launch a Beta Testing App

Beta Testing App
Beta Testing App

Most of the companies skip the beta testing phase and take the risk of directly launching the mobile app. This process may prove costly in the long run. It is very important to test the app among the potential users first.

These are excellent methods to fix the bugs and get genuine user feedback to your app.

Step 9:- Launch the app and Plan on the marketing strategies for its success.

marketing strategies
Marketing Strategies

Launch your mobile app in the market on Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

There are some big players in the online grocery business like Amazon, Walmart and big baskets which have a high profile like a celebrity. There is no need for you to compare and take the same routes as they have taken.

Initially, you can begin with a strong marketing strategy to market your mobile app platform to the right audiences.

You can market your online grocery app store using the methods like putting an advertisement in the local newspaper, Distributes brochure and pamphlets, Sending bulk messages and more.

Nowadays, Digital Marketing is considered the best marketing methods for various industries. You have to work on the creation of some creative content, work on the marketing strategy like SEO and paid ads or more. Brainstorm various marketing strategies to make it big. Use social media for marketing your services.

Step 10:- Customer Feedback

Customer Feedback
Customer Feedback

After launching and marketing your online grocery app in the market, the work is not over. You have to check the customer's feedback and make improvement based on that. These will help you to increase the loyalty of your customers and increase the customer's engagement towards your platform.

What is the basic feature list of an Online Grocery Business?

We are going to discuss the feature list of the Online Grocery Business app, The features list plays a vital role in the success of any app services. It is highly recommended to add some of the unique features into your Online Grocery Business App.

The Online grocery App mainly consists of 4 main panels if you are launching a marketplace app. And if you already own a grocery store then 3 panels are enough for you.

The marketplace app is consist of the customer panel, Grocery Store owners panel, Driver Panel and Admin Panel. If you already have a grocery store then this app is consist of a Customer Panel, Driver Panel and Grocery store panel.

Feature list of a Online Grocery App
Feature list of an Online Grocery App

Here in the below section, I am going to list down the features:-

  1. Customer Panel
  • Login/Registration.
  • Customers can easily set up and manage their profiles.
  • Allow the location to the app.
  • Can easily check the list of highly purchased products on the home screen.
  • Can easily search the product by applying various filters
  • Can check the details of the product and price details
  • Easily add the product to the cart and purchase.
  • Customize the quantity of the product.
  • Get various options for payment
  • Can easily track the order.
  • Can check the history and re-order the purchased product if required.
  • Get notified when any new product is introduced or get notified in case of any special offer.
  • Can give feedback and review
  • Can list down or add daily grocery items in their favourite list.
  • Choose delivery services.
  • Access the contact details of the grocery store owner.
  • Access coupon codes.
  • Online chat module for customer support.

2. Grocery Store Owner Panel

  • Grocery Store owner registration and login module.
  • Can easily manage their store profile
  • Product management.
  • Can make updates or deletes to their products
  • Give customer support.
  • Price and details management.
  • Order management.
  • Payment management.
  • Manage the inventory.
  • Accept or reject the orders.
  • Manage the delivery pick-up point.
  • Get notified about the order.
  • Manage the reviews and ratings.

3. Driver Panel

For delivery service, Admin can collaborate with various delivery service providers which deliver the parcel to the customers.

Another option is to hire a delivery team, whenever Admin gets the order notification, the nearby delivery boy also gets notified about the details and the location. The delivery team can easily accept and reject the services.

If a Delivery boy has accepted the request then he gets all the information about the pickup point, the number of the products, and delivery location.

  • Delivery login module.
  • Accept or decline the services.
  • Allow location access.
  • Get information about the customer.
  • Map integration.
  • Payment management
  • Manage Reviews and ratings.

4. Admin Panel

  • Admin Login.
  • Manage the dashboard.
  • Manage user profile
  • Manage the store data
  • Inventory management.
  • Manage the listing of the products
  • Manage the categories
  • Manage the subcategories
  • Assigning the orders of the users.
  • Order management
  • Track the order
  • Manage the special offer or coupon code.
  • Chat Support
  • Manage payment
  • Invoices generation.
  • Manage feedback and reviews.
  • Manage and Push notification.
  • Generate reports and analytics
  • Ratings and review management.

How much does it cost to develop an Online Grocery Business?

In the above section, we have discussed all the key points related to developing a successful online grocery store.

To know the cost of developing a successful online grocery app you need to know the factors on which the costing of the apps are highly dependent:-

  • The size of the mobile app.
  • The feature list of a mobile app.
  • The functionality of the mobile app.
  • The UI/UX designing of the mobile app.
  • The technology platforms.
  • The Developer’s Experience.

And more.

So it is quite impossible to provide the exact cost of developing an On-demand grocery app or Grocery Delivery app. Let me list down the approximate costing as well as a timeline of developing a Successful Grocery Delivery app and On-Demand Grocery app:-

Costing of Online Grocery App Development
Costing of Online Grocery App Development

Timeline:

  • App Design:- 9 Working Days
  • Android App Development:- 25 Working Days
  • iOS App Development:- 25 Working Days
  • Web Backend & Apis:- 30 Working Days
  • Testing, Bug fixing, and Deployment:- 7 Working Days

Costing:

  • The approximate cost of developing an Online Grocery app is 2000–18000 USD.

If you are thinking of launching an online grocery app in the market then this is the right time for you to invest because the customers are still looking for some of the best online platforms which can provide all the facility they require in a single online Grocery moile app.

Want to launch a successful Online grocery mobile app?

Feel free to connect with me and get a free quote.

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Jisha

Business Development Executive And Content Writer at The App Ideas