How Important is it to Develop a Grocery Delivery App for Business?

Grocery delivery app download growth due to coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States as of March 2020

 

That’s how grocery businesses are working in 2020 — the acclaim even goes to the COVID-19 pandemic. But why has the demand for developing an on-demand grocery delivery app amplified at such a drastic rate? Let’s find out!

Develop a Grocery Delivery App for Business — What is it?

Let’s discuss what it is and how it works?

What is a Grocery Store?

Visiting grocery stores used to be a chore at some point. However, it is not a task now! When you have developed a grocery delivery app for business, there is no such task as bringing your own groceries from the store.

According to Wikipedia, A grocery store (North America), grocer or grocery shop (U.K.), is a store primarily engaged in retailing a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, “grocery store” is a synonym for supermarket, and is not used to refer to other types of stores that sell groceries. In the U.K., shops that sell food are distinguished as grocers or grocery shops, though in everyday use, people usually use either the term “supermarket” or, for a smaller type of store that sells groceries, a “corner shop” or “convenience shop”.

Grocery Stores must Develop Grocery Delivery App — Here’s Why

Grocery is a word that every household relates to. No matter which strata of income bracket a family comes from, everyone buys groceries. Given we have adopted westernization to a great extent, the families have transitioned from joint to nuclear, the number of kids per family has reduced due to more awareness about the safety of women and also rising inflation. With working couples, it’s very difficult to physically go to the store and buy groceries every time. There is a heavy reliance on online grocery delivery apps for getting the grocery delivered at your doorstep.

You’ll be surprised to know — FMI and Nielsen predict that consumers could be spending $100B a year on online groceries by 2025.

With such a strong market for online grocery, you might be wondering if it is a good idea to develop a grocery store sales app for your business?

Let’s walk you through the pros and cons of building an online grocery delivery app.

 

PROS Of Building an Online Grocery Delivery App

1. The Gift of Customer Loyalty

At this age getting a faithful user is not an easy job. You can’t blame them either. There are so many choices out there that people generally switch to options where they have more lucrative discounts and wherever they’ll get cheaper stuff. That’s the benefit you experience when you develop a grocery delivery app for business.

Generally, existing users spend more time on an app than the new ones. If the service that you offer is exceptional and caters to all the grocery needs of a family, then you are bound to attract customer loyalty. Hence if you wish to build customer loyalty, the best is to invest in developing an on-demand grocery delivery app for your business. Since every business expects to build customer loyalty, it is advisable to develop an app for enhancing the grocery business.

2. Critical Features for Easy Navigation

With a grocery delivery app, you have everything at your disposal in sorted categories. Few enhanced features give a lot of flexibility to the users. Some of these features include –

Category-wise navigation — You have all the toiletries, Veggies, fruits everything sorted into concise categories.

Three Dimensional illustrative pictures of items — This one ensures that the customers get a good look and feel of the product and they are assured that the product that will be delivered to them is genuine and not fake or a copy.

Virtual Shopping Baskets — This one is an interesting addition. You can keep adding and removing stuff from your basket, and customize baskets for repeat purchases.

3. Facilities like Scratch Card and Digital Coupons

Now, who doesn’t like some sort of discount coupons or lucky offers? Every penny that one saves by choosing one medium over the other counts. Offering free delivery as a gift for a regular buyer ensures that the customer feels that he/she is getting rewards for choosing your app over the others. Develop a grocery delivery app for business and you will be able to do that without any hassle.

Having scratch cards ensures that the users are always engaged and have something to look forward to. When customers have facilities like Scratch Card and Digital Coupons, they tend to rely on the grocery store more often.

4. Convenience

This is a major aspect of online shopping, not just grocery. You get the privilege of shopping for groceries anytime 24*7. Generally choosing the favorable time slot for delivery, avoiding the hassle of parking and crowding queues specifically as people barge in on weekends to stock up for the week. Also, stores understand the perishable nature of the items delivered, they send the best quality items to minimize complaints from the customers.

Convenience is the main factor that one looks for in the app, and if your on-demand grocery delivery app is able to deliver that, there is nothing better than that for the business. And when you develop a grocery delivery app for business, it becomes easier for you to deliver convenience and comfort to the patrons.

5. Easy Bulk Shopping

 

Bulk shopping is another great advantage of owning a grocery delivery app for your business. Of course, it would be a chore to take groceries home yourself, and when it is in bulk, the burden on the shopper is evident. However, a grocery delivery app unburdens the load. It allows you to shop for as many products as you want, with everything delivered by someone right at the comfort of your home. Besides, shopping for bulk groceries means adding up to extra space and effort. That’s not the case when you are shopping via the grocery delivery app. In fact, this is one of the easiest ways to order groceries in bulk, and that’s why people are preferring it even during these pandemic times. So, when you develop a grocery delivery app for business, it could be considered a smart deal, apparently.

6. Ultimate Time Savior

No matter what the time is, the grocery app lets you shop online at any time of the day. You can shop when it is the most convenient time to do so. However, you or someone from the family needs to be at home, when groceries are delivered. That’s the only requisite when ordering from the grocery delivery app. When using the app to order, you always have the option to choose your best time to shop online. Hence, a pretty convenient option to rely on to buy groceries. Forget standing in the lines and waiting for your turn to get groceries. Now is the time to get everything delivered at the comfort of home, without worrying about standing in queues or even stepping out of your homes. Developing a grocery delivery app for business, is indeed, a good idea.

7. Oodles of Choices

Developing a grocery delivery app for the business will result in customers picking from oodles of options. Customers can simply find tons of options to choose from, which makes their shopping experience even better. Every customer has their own favorite and they will not prefer to buy anything else over that. Hence, the grocery delivery app helps them in picking from oodles of choices. Different customers can buy products as per their customizations and preferences. And, a grocery delivery certainly is the best choice to do so. Besides, if you have got your grocery delivery app developed by a reliable and experienced development team, it would have a ‘smart search’ option, which allows the customers to easily find the best from the list. Hence, there is no trouble for the customers to find the products from the list, if you develop a grocery delivery app for business.

8. Multiple Payment Options

Developing a grocery delivery app for your grocery business is allowing your customers to enjoy easy payment options for online shopping. Nowadays, patrons do look for different payment options, including COD, credit card, debit card, wallet, net banking, and many other options. So, having all these options in the grocery delivery app will ensure that you have to keep your customers content in terms of payment options. It even is an amazing option for the patrons, as they can enjoy the ease of paying for items shopped online via their online grocery delivery app for business.

9. Order Tracking

Once you have placed the order, it becomes easier for the customers to track it and see when it is arriving. Order tracking is counted among some of the best features of a grocery delivery app for business. Why keep the customers impatiently waiting for their orders, when they can track everything right on their on-demand grocery delivery app? Apart from enjoying the order tracking, one even has the option to see the route via which the delivery agent will be delivering the order. Hence, customers can easily track how their order is proceeding.

According to Invesp, “Did you know that Digital grocery sales in the US are estimated to reach $59.5 billion by 2023 from $23.9 billion in 2018. 48% of US grocery shoppers currently purchase at least some of their groceries online and 59% intend to in 2019. 25% of US grocery shoppers plan to shop 40% or more of their grocery shopping online in 2019.”

CONS

1. Lack of Physical Touch and Feel

 

Now, this one is a little old school. People are still paranoid about buying groceries online as they worry that they might get perishable stuff delivered at their doorstep. They feel that rather than taking the risk, why not go physically and pick fresh stuff up. Even once if they get disappointed with what is delivered to them, they might decide to never buy any grocery online.

Now, how can the apps find a comeback for this? Exceptional customer service is the answer. One out of a hundred times, it is possible that the items delivered are not of optimum quality. Every business should ensure that there is a provision of instant returns so that the users will not be charged if he/she is not happy with what is delivered.

2. Doesn’t Guarantee Zero Visits to The Grocery Store

Well, this one is a no brainer. While online shopping is a great idea for stocking up for the week, there are some items that you have to physically go and buy. So, while online grocery shopping offers a lot of conveniences, it doesn’t save you from visiting the store altogether. And, then when you do end up visiting the grocery stores, you’ll handpick other items as well. So, it might be a good deal for the stores, as customers end up buying more products. But the customers will eventually be thinking what’s the use of the grocery delivery app if they still have to visit the store.

3. Apps Might Not Be Everyone’s Cup of Tea

Millennials are more digital natives and know how to use the devices and apps efficiently. But senior citizens might not be that well versed with using apps. They might find it challenging to navigate across the app and order groceries. There might be payment issues as well. In the case of going to brick and mortar stores, it’s much easier. You just have to pick items and pay cash.

How can apps deal with this? They can simply make the apps as customer-friendly as possible. There can be options of the demo for using the app, live chat features so that whenever someone has an issue, they can reach out to the chat service and get live feedback from customer service personnel. However, when you develop a grocery delivery app for business, it is recommended not to use too complicated icons, buttons, or lists. If you choose a good development team, your app will be much simpler and sorted than ever before. Otherwise, apps are not everyone’s cup of tea.

4. Establishing Credibility and Increased Competition in The Market

While consumers are looking to save time and money, shopping for groceries online isn’t worth it if it puts them at risk of buying expired or unsafe foods. To gain consumer confidence many online grocery vendors must reimburse any subpar products or goods that got damaged in transit. Customers are generally skeptical to try new things to leave aside an important thing such as grocery. It takes a lot of time for consumers to develop trust for a particular app. And, with so many options in the market people are generally spoilt for choice.

There are thousands of grocery apps in the market that have made people spoilt for choice. They generally keep switching between options wherever they can get more discounts. So, competition can make it a little difficult for online grocery businesses. They might have to think of constant updates or offerings in their app so that people remain engaged and interested in using their service.

However, by relying on a trustworthy grocery store with a good market reputation, this issue can easily be avoided.

Things to Know Before Developing a Grocery Delivery App

Certain points help in developing the grocery delivery app, which every would-be grocery delivery app owner must know.

1. Select the ‘Operational’ Model

Before you begin with your project, be sure to understand the business model. Whether it is going to be the warehouse model or store pick-up model that you opt for. That will decide how your on-demand grocery delivery will be developed. Pick your business model wisely keeping in mind different factors like the location — what works locally also matters when you are selecting the operational model for your business.

2. Customized Menu

Grocery shopping seems similar to window grocery shopping to many grocery shoppers. Crowds come, pick items, add to cart, and finally pay for the grocery items purchased. But when you develop a grocery delivery app for business, it is easy to see the list of customized menus and choose the best items for yourself. Customized menus appear like an added perk to those who are shopping online. Customers don’t have to scroll through pages every time they shop, but just see the customized menu to order groceries online.

It is simple to customize the menus using different technologies, including Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Customized menus options can cater to a specific set of customers, which will attract them to try items from those menus. Health-conscious people will surely hit such customized healthy food menus, as it fits their lifestyle. Hence, the customized menu on the grocery delivery app will help you in attracting a particular segment of grocery shoppers.

3. Feature-Rich App

There are tons of advice on how to develop a grocery delivery app for business. However, you must pick the best features that suit your app. Here are some good features to include in your feature-rich grocery delivery app:

• Voice input like Siri or Google Assistant
• Barcode scanning via Google’s Barcode API for iOS and Android
• Include recipes in the app
• Incorporate multiple shopping lists

4. Define your USP

USP aka Unique Selling Point is selling items at the lowest price possible. Different grocery delivery stores have different unique selling propositions — Instacart’s USP is delivering products within one hour. On the other hand, Big Basket’s USP is to offer a huge range and variety of products. Opting for such unique USP’s have made them the top grocery delivery businesses across the world. You need to define your USP and offer grocery shoppers something special. Come up with something special that has never been offered to the customers, and they will enjoy using your app.

5. Design a Robust Website

To support your grocery delivery app, you will have to build a robust website that supports your grocery business. It is of high importance to pick the best design to build a grocery store website. The design has to be unique and innovative to ensure that people visit your grocery website and stay there to shop for groceries. Before you build a website, it is vital to spend time finding what competitors are doing and what customers are expecting out of your grocery store. It will help you in ensuring that everything is right on track. Don’t forget to test your website before you actually launch it in the market.

6. Secure Payment System

Developing an on-demand grocery delivery app means creating a full-fledged eCommerce app that operates 24*7 to serve the customers. You might have planned everything well (the best of everything) but in case you missed out on the secure payments, you might have to bear the consequences later on. Secure payment will help in gaining more customers, as they know purchasing groceries is a safer option when they do it from your app. Hence, invest time in building a robust payment option, which is secure. Plus, allow your customers to pay via different payment options, including credit card, debit card, net banking, and even wallets. The grocery delivery app must have the security of personal credentials that customers use to login into the app. Of course, it wouldn’t be a wise decision to compromise customer’s privacy. That can hurt customer loyalty and even your business.

7. Don’t Let ‘Out of Stock’ Situation Happen

No business should let an ‘out of stock’ situation ever happen to their store. Grocery businesses must invest in keeping the supplies proper. You will have to maintain a proper flow of product supply so that nothing goes out of stock on your grocery delivery app. Plan in advance which items should be available on the app, and how will the supplies be managed. Going online means you will have to be ready with enough stocks to manage your grocery delivery business, without any hassle. Keep a regular check or hire an inventory manager to handle it for you. All you need to do is keep a regular check on the stock and even your grocery delivery app for a smooth grocery delivery business.

Conclusion

Now, you are completely familiar with the top reasons to build up an on-demand grocery delivery app. An app for your grocery business can assist in taking your client experience to enormous heights. Also, that we have debated on the pros and cons of developing an online grocery delivery app for your business, in case you want to build a grocery store sales app for your business, GrocersApp can take you through the process of building one with ease. If you have any query, write to us at [email protected]

Originally Published Here: https://grocersapp.medium.com/how-important-is-it-to-develop-a-grocery-delivery-app-for-business-c23fde2b0275