Why to Invest in Online Grocery Business Post COVID-19 Pandemic?

COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we see and behave today. A lot of businesses are at the rock bottom, whilst a lot of businesses such as pharmacy, grocery and dairy products remain unaffected.

Current Situation for Consumers and Retailers

However, with consumers socially distancing themselves in the wake of COVID-19, these businesses are suffering as well. We all are living in extraordinary times where we have to pile up our shelves with products satisfying our daily necessities. This is due to uncertainty and fear of another potential lockdown phase.

Consumers are not the only ones who are suffering. It has been hard for retailers and wholesalers to deal with the situation. There are constant disruptions in the supply-chain which resulted in empty shelves due to a huge imbalance between supply (from manufacturers) and huge demand (from consumers). Goods that once were available in volumes suddenly became difficult to have. That is the impact a pandemic can bring to the people to change their shopping habits.

Perfect Time to Invest in Online Grocery Business

The bottom line to this problem is that Coronavirus is here to stay longer and physical grocery stores or brick and mortar grocery businesses have an option to go digital for better operations and sales. Online grocery store concept is the answer to the problems mentioned above. And groceries are products whose demand could never fall. So it is fair to say that it is not that risky to invest your money in developing on demand or online grocery stores.

The BIG positive is that even the governments are insisting their people to go digital and do online shopping in these tough times. Hence, manufacturers are in transition to optimise the on demand services (such as Ecommerce websites or Marketplace platforms) to reach a larger customer base.

Encouraging Stats for Online Grocery Business in COVID-19

Online grocery ordering and delivery platform is a complete solution to have groceries at your doorstep, with a few taps on your smartphone. This E-commerce business of groceries is set to grow as it has received global acceptance.

Waitrose, a popular grocery supermarket in Britain, held an online survey and found that:

• 1 in 5 customers never thought of buying groceries online before.
• 60% of people shopped online for groceries frequently since the pandemic.
• 40% of the customers cited it is convenient to buy groceries online.
• There is a rise in online grocery shopping in 2020 by 16% compared to 2019.

It’s the rise which is not just about the UK!

Mercato, an online marketplace platform in San Diego, USA, is growing at the rate of collaborating with 50 grocery stores on average everyday during March 2020. This has resulted

It remains the fact that on demand grocery delivery was expected to grow well before the COVID-19 pandemic, and now the adoption curve is faster than it could have been ever.

Benefits of On Demand Grocery App Platform

24/7 Online Presence

Gain instant online visibility by having a multi-vendor grocery marketplace or personalised Ecommerce website to sell groceries. Your online presence automatically helps you reach a larger customer base.

Smart inventory management

Never run out of stock for any of the products via a smart notification system. It is important to let consumers stay updated about the quantities available to instill a sense of reliability and expectations.

Order and delivery tracking

Perhaps the best thing for businesses and consumers while ordering online. Businesses stay updated with upcoming orders and consumers with the status of their orders till they are delivered.

Improves customer experience

An online grocery store with features that consumers will love to use guarantees to deliver an experience to remember. This factor is very important to bring them back to the platform for shopping.

Boosts customer loyalty

Not only the product quality, but the overall quality of the UI design of the website or mobile app while shopping plays a huge role in establishing the customer loyalty and grocery vendors must take a note.

Effective promotions and rewards

Vendors could easily promote their products through online offers. They could even reward their regular or loyal customers with coupons codes for a limited time period to boost sales.

Know your customers

Grocery vendors can have a rating and review feature to have feedback from their customers. This feature helps them to under the expectations of the target audience and improve down the line.

Some Innovative Features which Your Consumers will Love

Track monthly costs

Consumers can track the monthly expenditure on grocery items through the online grocery app. No need to keep a pen and a paper everyday to note down the costs on groceries.

Product availability tracker

Buyers can directly jump to recommended products and see check the availability of their desired goods. They can book a slot accordingly and make an order to get the groceries delivered.

Virtual assistants

They could be the cherry on the cake for you. AI powered chatbots can speed up the process of on demand grocery shopping. They could also answer instant queries in chat support options. Alexa skill integration and Google Action development could also help making online orders through voice-assistant devices.

Final Takeaway: Ecommerce Transition is Inevitable

Even a 2 to 3-year acceleration in the shift to Ecommerce leaves our long-term investment thesis in Ecommerce intact. We continue to believe that over the next few decades, Ecommerce will stabilize at around 55% of all retail sales, as we’ve outlined in our piece on the future of retail. This massive shift creates hundreds of billions in unrealized opportunity for innovative retailers and retail service providers alike, driving convenience for consumers, especially in times of need.

Why Choose IndiaNIC?

Are you into grocery business and looking for a custom grocery app? Get in touch with our team of Magento developers. It does not end here. Any Tom, Dick, and Harry could build you an online Ecommerce store. But IndiaNIC is not a product company, it is a 360 degree software development service company which has been working with the same mentality and integrity since 1997. Our goal is to deliver a complete Ecommerce solution with the best UI that focuses on online user experience. Our design experts look at this as an opportunity to cement consumer patronage while increasing new customers.

Our teams are safe and fully functional during the business hours during this COVID-19 pandemic. IndiaNIC has been delivering timely deliverables ever since the lockdown phase has started. And we will continue to stick to our promises in the future.

Read : CEO’s message ensuring Service Standards with 0% DOWNTIME in COVID-19

If you have a brilliant idea on grocery business, let’s join our hands together!