7 Features That Will Help You Sell More On Your Online Grocery Store

Do you know how much revenue top online grocery stores generate annually? Let's check out each one of them. 

• Grofers

This hyperlocal ecommerce site's revenue grew 111% YoY to over INR 176 Cr in FY2020. They also introduced their private grocery label to sell 250 food and non-food products.

• Flipkart Supermarket

Started in October 2015, Flipkart supermarket has crossed the revenue of $ 2 billion. They also launched their private label in staples categories called 'Flipkart Supermart Select'. 

• Amazon Pantry

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon Pantry saw a huge demand for grocery items, as most customers were avoiding visiting a physical store. It has reported $ 88.9 billion in revenue. (Geekwire)

• Big Basket

Revenue recorded in the year 2020 was Rs 3,822 crore. ( Business Standard ) . They also offer a 6 months membership program and express delivery within 60 to 120 minutes to build customer interest. They have also adopted a hyperlocal ecommerce delivery model for quick and efficient deliveries. 

• Jio Mart

Jiomart's growth secret is about leveraging multiple channels for deliveries, both online and offline. Their total revenue is going to be Rs 4000 crore.

It is evident from above that people are embracing online grocery shopping. The brands that know how to tap increased demand are earning huge profits. 

If you are an entrepreneur planning to open an online grocery store. Check below- 

• Online Grocery Market size surpassed USD 190 billion in 2019 and will expand at around 28% CAGR between 2020 and 2026. (GM)

• In India, E-grocery revenue will grow from $ 3.3 billion in 2020 to $ 24 billion by 2025. (Financial Express).

Moreover, consumers' penetration towards online grocery stores has also increased worldwide. Around 55% of the market size, which is around $ 13 billion, will belong to value-first households (that prefer fresh and staples) and the rest to convenience-first customers.

Let's first explore customer expectations, which will help in determining the features you need on your online store .   

What are customer expectations from an online grocery store?

• Fast, efficient, and accurate information on grocery products 

• Simple and quick checkouts

• Shorter delivery period / 24 hours delivery of fresh produce 

• Variety of delivery options

• Exciting deals and freebies on orders

• Multiple payment choices

• Click & collect the delivery method to pick up goods from a physical store, to save delivery costs

Here is a list of features that you should have on your online grocery store 

1. Order management

Automated order processing feature helps you create, verify, and process orders as quickly and accurately as possible. 

Benefits of an order management system

• Cost reduction achieved via order accuracy: With an order management system, the possibility of errors (incorrect deliveries, order status discrepancies) becomes zero, thus promoting order accuracy and cost reduction. 

• Better customer service by giving real-time order updates: You get collective information about your customer's orders which you can use to update your customers and give automatic alerts.

StoreHippo's ecommerce platform provides the option of bulk-order processing . With this option, you can control multiple orders in one go. It speeds up your business processes by eliminating manual processing. 

StoreHippo order management system provides an overview of all customer orders, abandoned checkouts, returns , refunds , deliveries, and a lot more. You can even see order details, shipped orders, generate invoices, update order status, cancel orders , etc.

2. Multiple payment options

The top reason behind cart abandonment is a scarcity of payment gateways. Because not every shopper will buy using cards or net banking, they might use an e-wallet or COD. Hence, it is critical to integrate multiple payment gateways to enhance shopping flexibility and accelerate checkouts. 

What is the most popular payment option preferred by customers? Well, it depends on your audience location. Let's segment it country-wise- 

In the Americas: Credit or debit cards

In the Asia Pacific: E-Wallets AliPay, WeChat, Paytm, GoPay

In Europe: E-Wallets such as PayPal, Yandex, and other local payment solutions

In India: Credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets 

(Source: Statista)

New types of payment option you can offer to your customers

• Buy Now, Pay later (BNPL): This method refers to when a customer takes the product and pays for it on a later date with / without interest. This method has registered 162% growth in the past two years. (Pymnts) Many young audiences are shifting to these options. By offering the BNPL option, ecommerce merchants can remove the shoppers' hesitations in buying big ticket orders and also inflate average order value (AOV).

StoreHippo has 60 pre-integrated payment gateways that offer a wide variety of payment options such as Buy now pay later, COD, credit card, EMI, digital wallets, crypto currencies, etc. All the partner payment gateways are 100% secure, PCI-DSS compliant and provide a smooth transaction to your customers.

3. Reviews and ratings

91% of people between 18-34 years of age consider reviews as more helpful compared to personal recommendations. (BrightLocal)

In addition, 93% of consumers say that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions. (Podium) This proves the vitality of online reviews in customer purchase journeys. Let’s explore the exclusive benefits of reviews- 

Benefits to businesses 

• Positive reviews can boost your online grocery sales

• Valuable customer insights create room for improvement

• Earn customers’ trust and loyalty by showing both bad and good reviews

• Can make your products super desirable and recommendable

• User-generated content helps you rank better on Google because the content will increase your web page’s relevancy to user queries

Benefits to customers 

• Helps in determining the reliability of a product. 

• Fasten the purchase process 

• Boost the confidence of the customer

Increase your product trustworthiness with StoreHippo 

StoreHippo gives a rich library of customisable themes and templates, using which you can build beautiful storefront and product pages in a few clicks. You can add various elements (like review and rating widget, carousel widget, FAQ widget) to your pages by simply dragging and dropping the page elements. 

Not only this, there is another tool called push notification, which can be used to remind customers about their recent purchase and ask them to write a review describing their experience. 

4. Emails and push notifications

Want to notify your customer about new sales, product launches, discounts, or membership benefits? Email and push notification is the answer. They are the weapons to convert one-time grocery buyers into regular customers. But to let this miracle happen, you need personalization in the emails/notifications you send.

Your emails/notifications should be more about recommending relevant products based on each customer’s buying preferences or history. Here are 2 advanced email personalization tactics to apply to your online grocery store. 

• Product recommendation: You can recommend products via email or push notifications that match customer's interests. StoreHippo notification feature lets you create real-time, personalized content that speaks right to the individual to create a long-term relationship. 

• Abandonment emails: It is pretty common to see buyers adding to their cart but taking time in performing the purchase. In the worst conditions, buyers will complete if they aren’t reminded timely. That’s why sending abandoned cart emails or notifications is important. 

Fun Fact: Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened and generate a 760% increase in email revenue from targeted and segmented campaigns.

Checklist for sending personalized emails

• Gather buyers data such as emails, mobile numbers, name, location, etc

• Study customer data like their buying behavior, preferences, etc to personalize

• Segment customer data into various categories. If a particular set of buyers has shown purchase interest in apparel, list them under the category ‘Apparel Buyers’

• Integrate email marketing tools with your ecommerce platform to send personalized emails to your customers

How to create motivating emails/notifications with StoreHippo?

StoreHippo provides default notification templates, you can customize them as per your brand requirement. You can create notifications in Settings > Notifications in your StoreHippo Admin Panel. 

For emails, you can integrate popular email marketing tools like Mailchimp, Sendinblue, etc. These tools help you in sending emails in bulk. Tools make it easy to manage your contact list, segment users, haIf them into groups, and track the performance of your email marketing campaigns.

5. Detailed product pages

Have you ever bought groceries without checking their expiry date or ingredients or brand or weight? I believe you never. 

Giving upfront information will boost customer trust and confidence in your online grocery store. Product descriptions should be accurate, detailed, and engaging so that they can be served as an online sales associate.

Elements to include in product pages 

• MRP of the product align with the item weight 

• Discounted price of the product 

• Nutritional value, Ingredients, and benefits 

• Manufacturer name and address 

• Availability of product by pincode

• Delivery information and return policy

• Review and Rating section 

Recipe to draft influential product descriptions 

• Mix product specifications with benefits OR

• Tell a relevant story that can place your product in the buyer’s daily life

Create beautiful products pages with StoreHippo 

StoreHippo gives you readymade and customizable templates to build product pages in a few seconds. Changing/adding elements of templates is also easy with drag and drop functionality. All the templates are mobile-friendly that don’t need further optimization. 

6. Irresistible offers & membership programs 

To better understand this point, Let’s take examples of online grocery stores, offering great deals to their customers. Here they are- 

• Amazon Pantry: Free delivery on items above Rs 799 products, get 5% extra off, 50% on kitchen essentials, Get up to ₹300 back on Amazon Pay ICICI credit card approval

• Flipkart Supermarket: Provides Many Rs 1 Deals On Groceries every day.Extra Rs 150 off on Groceries in exchange for 20 SuperCoins, bank offers

• Grofers:  Provides offers like - upto 50% off on staples, 10% off on beverages, free deliveries, grocery under Rs 49,  smart bachat membership, etc

With the help of the discount engine in StoreHippo, you can design a variety of coupons and discounts on selected products. This might result in an influx of new website visitors which may get converted into customers via such offers.

7. Self-contained checkout process

What elements make a customer checkout quickly with no second thought? Possibly many obstructions prevent customers from taking purchase action. Let's optimize your checkout by following the best practices.

Best Practices to Follow while creating Checkout page

• Avoid surprise costs that can turn off a buyer

• Push abandonment notifications

• Integrate multiple payment options 

• Showcase security and trust seals

• Follow 3 step checkout process ie Delivery & Payment Review> Place Order> Complete Payment

• Always ask for payment in the last step

• Leverage Hyperlocal ecommerce deliveries 

Build a checkout process in a few clicks with StoreHippo.

Final takeaway

Ready to launch your hyperlocal ecommerce grocery store? I feel you are very positive now, as you have a detailed formula to grow an online grocery store. 

Now when you are motivated and might be looking for some ecommerce platform to get started. Then I want to introduce you to the StoreHippo ecommerce solution . 

StoreHippo is a zero-code ecommerce platform that helps you build an online store without any developers. You get advanced features like mobile-responsive themes , codeless app builder, marketing tools , order management tools, hyperlocal ecommerce feature, pre-integrates payment partners, multi-store , multilingual stores, shipping solutions , and inbuilt vendor management system . Get started with a 14 days free trial to experience the rich features required to build an online grocery store.