Groceries are perishable and so is this business too. Must be wondering why and how it is so? Okay. In our last blog, we saw Reasons to invest in the online grocery business post-COVID-19. It is expected to grow even higher due to consumers’ preferred purchasing option now, that is online grocery buying and delivery concept. Global pandemic like COVID-19 indeed has a big impact on this without a doubt. 

Nevertheless, consumers have experienced the on-demand grocery concept to be more convenient, time-saving, and safe. Who would not like fresh groceries getting delivered right at the doorstep?

Understanding the Need to INNOVATE

It just does not matter if you are the owner of a small or big grocery store. You have to have a system implemented to manage your grocery store successfully to streamline the operations, meet the business objectives, and reduce wastage. 

Grocery business keeps owners and staff on their toes. It is complex and action-packed most of the time. Groceries are products that can decay fast. You being the retailer must be running all day to efficiently manage the sales, operations, and stockist teams, just to ensure the inventory does not go to waste. More waste results in huge losses in the longer run.

Hence, it is required to have a solution that is business-oriented, user-friendly, well-integrated, and automated.

Challenges of the Grocery Retailers

You must have thought, what is the thing that has pegged down E-groceries to evolve like Ecommerce, in the last decade or so? Let us see some of the top-shelf challenges for grocery businesses to tackle.

Fortunately, today they all could be solved though.

Expenses for Specialized Infrastructure

Perishable groceries need investments and maintenance of storage and delivery facilities to keep them fresh. 

Technology Glitches in Physical Stores

Conventional grocery businesses lack that ‘Smart’ move to enhance the in-store experience of consumers and business operations.

Lack of Efficient Delivery System

It is highly impossible to track the high volume orders and the deliveries while meeting the needs of this Bermuda Triangle – Product quality, time, and cost.

Lack of Trust to Buy Groceries Online

Most of us would like to hold an orange in our hands to take a look before putting it in the basket to take it home. Need to combine online and offline experience to solve this challenge.

Is there a Way to Fend of These Challenges?

One must think if there is any way to fend off these limitations. Well, we are sure that technology transformation and quality measurements along with maintenance by the vendors will definitely overcome the existing challenges and persistent reluctance of customers into retention for buying the groceries online. Think of the 10-15 years back where Ecommerce was merely a concept for a few countries and people never trusted buying things online. 

What now? Physical stores are finding it harder to survive and look for the latest innovations to increase customer footfalls in their stores.

So why wait? Let us explore some of the most trending software solutions that have completely revolutionized online grocery shopping and business too.

Software Solutions for Grocery Business

Encouraging signs have been seen to overcome the challenges mentioned above using various technologies to integrate and automate multiple processes. Following are the software solutions for grocery retailers to take their businesses to the next level.

1) Online Grocery Storefront – a no brainer

The best thing you can do for your grocery business to boost sales is by making it available any time of the day, even at night. All you need to do is to opt for online grocery store development, a virtual storefront. This is a high time where food and commerce businesses need a storefront. Yes, an online store is just a fast, safe, secure way to run and manage all your operations. 

Considering the usage of mobile users, a mobile-friendly or responsive grocery website and a mobile app with an appealing UI/UX and a lot more features could boost your ROI. To name a few, please refer the list of features you can get to your online grocery store.

• Smart navigation
• Product availability tracker
• Quick checkout
• Order management
• Advanced bulk purchase
• Book time-slot to visit & pick-up
• Secure and easy payments
• User-friendly content management system
• Run promotions, offers, rewards

2) Grocery POS Solutions

The goal of POS software solutions in the grocery business is to maximize fresh product availability, minimize costs, and speed up the checkout process. The delivery segment is kept isolated which will be explained in the later stage of this article. 

Irrespective of having a single grocery store or a supermarket chain, POS solutions can help you with the following:

Centralized Management

From the front of the store to the backend, monitor and manage every aspect of your business through a custom POS software solution.

Advanced Technology & Opportunities

Fetching quality data with the help of analytics and reports could be meaningful to install predictive analytics to forecast buyers’ purchasing habits.

Optimum Buying Experience

Offer the best possible customer experience through your sales channels, at any time and from anywhere. It helps to boost consumer loyalty and patronage.

Cloud POS

To manage remote operations of supermarket chains, Cloud POS is the best solution that is easy to set up and scale-up. It allows making better decisions using real-time data.

Some of the features of implementing a POS into the grocery business are given below. Remember that it is possible to integrate POS solutions with your existing grocery mobile app or a grocery website.

• Barcoding and labeling using RFID 
• Streamline ordering online to pick up later process
• Self-checkout with self-payment options
• Inventory software integration to track stock
• Waste control

3) Inventory Management Solutions

“Sorry, this product is Out-of-stock” is perhaps the most annoying thing while shopping in the hour of need. It is one of the most damning reasons behind the huge losses the retailers have to bear in the grocery business. Talking about the need, groceries are essentials. 

Hence, automated inventory control is the most sought-after solution to control wastage and as a result, losses. Maintaining an optimal level of inventory is a crucial part. Overstocking results in discounted items or waste, whereas understocking leads to product unavailability, loss of sales, and forgetful customer experience. 

Now, what could be done to have a somewhat clear picture to manage your inventory? Don’t worry! Leveraging a robust analytics system, grocers can have a real-time view on operations they carried out and plan precisely to procure products to control waste. 

Inventory management software automates the generation of purchase orders and defines what and when to pile up the stock. When integrated with the POS systems, it can also alert the stock managers via notifications. Have a look at the features covered by inventory management software.

• RFID for product ID
• Inventory optimization
• Stock notifications (Alerts)
• Inventory reports
• Return stock management
• Multi-warehouse management
• View purchase orders history
• Sales and Demand Forecasting

4) Grocery Delivery Software

There are basic two types of deliveries you can offer to your customers. This is because of the perishable nature of the products and consumer habits we have seen earlier in the article.

A consumer selects the products by having a look at the on-demand grocery app and places an order. Then the consumer could have three options to complete the order :

Direct delivery

The consumer order details along with the address will be received by the grocery store and the delivery operation will commence given the time and date of the expected delivery. The delivery boy or team will be notified about the respective order.

Click and Pick

In case the consumers want to have a look before they purchase, they make an order after checking product availability online. Instead of the direct delivery, they will select this option with a time slot for visit. The staff at the storefront will be notified and prepare the order to send a notification (Your order is prepared and ready) just before the time slot selected by the customers.

The delivery management software is often integrated with the POS, inventory management, 3rd party app in case of a partnered delivery system. Effective features of the delivery management system for an on-demand grocery delivery are mentioned below.

• Estimated delivery time
• Real-time location tracking
• Scheduled delivery
• Scheduled pick-up

Final Takeaway

The market out there is as competitive as anything. Time to be an early bird and see off the competition. 

The online grocery business is scaling up of late and is gradually becoming a new hit for consumers around the world. Why not? It saves their last-mile fuel expenses and is far more convenient. 

On the flipside, it is important for grocers to streamline everything that needs, based on the scope of the project. Nothing more, nothing less. And only the right software development company could help you do that.

Why choose IndiaNIC?

Since 1997, we have seen moments of success and failure both. Those who say we have only tasted success in our journey, lie big time. But the extraordinary experiences and lessons from the failures have pushed us the extra mile to provide a fitting solution that meets our client’s expectations and business objectives. We are not a product company, we are a service-providing company. Delivering software products is not our only goal.

Ask our team of experts who have tons of experience in identifying the challenges of the grocery business. Team IndiaNIC will give you thorough guidance and consultation upon what your business needs along with end-to-end grocery software solutions development services.