How to start your on-demand grocery delivery business efficiently amidst the pandemic
Even though the pandemic hasn’t ended, economic activities are starting to normalize as businesses are heavily affected. Experts have predicted that it would take months for a vaccine to arrive and it would take at least a year for things to normalize. As people are facing a tough time now, most supermarkets are opening for customers to shop offline. They ensure every safety precaution is taken for the employees. However, not every customer is ready to leave their house as there is high risk of getting infected. So the question arises “How can a supermarket continue to serve its customers and boost its revenue?”. The answer is to develop an on-demand grocery delivery app like Happyfresh. Here are some proven strategies that might help you amidst this pandemic.
Ensure safety measures:
As we are in a pandemic, businesses will take time to come back to normalcy. Until then, the safety of your customers and delivery executives should be your top priority. Provide the necessary protective equipment masks, respirators, gloves, and hand sanitizer for your delivery executives to ensure their safety. Suspend cash on delivery options on the app and ensure that the deliveries packages are properly sanitized for the time being.
Adopt contactless deliveries:
As a part of iImplementing zero contact deliveries, leave the delivery packages in front of the customer’s door and intimate them. You can easily limit the interactions between the customers and delivery executives, while ensuring their safety.
Support local grocery business:
As a result of the pandemic, retail sales have dropped to 30% in the US. Small scale offline grocery stores are struggling to survive as they lack the resources to take their business online. You can lend your hand for them in this odd time. Collaborating with them will establish a win-win situation for both parties.
Make no compromises on the quality of service:
Quality of service includes optimization of the user interface and providing excellent delivery services. Additionally you can also offer late night deliveries, same hour delivery, etc. Since you are handling an online based business, you should go the extra mile to make no compromises on the quality of services.
Essential features in on-demand grocery delivery apps
A robust grocery delivery app like Happyfresh has three separate applications for customers, supermarkets, and admin panels. Here are the critical features that shouldn’t be missed on these apps.
Features in the customer-side app:
This app is exclusively designed for customers and focuses on enhancing their user experience on the platform. It lets users find necessary groceries, add them to the cart, and make payments. Here are the features that enhance the functionality on the customer-side app.
- Registration vid phone number or email address
- Social media plugins
- User profile
- Product search
- Product categories
- Items list
- Product catalog
- Payment gateway
- GPS tracking
- Notifications on the order status
- Shopping cart
- Call/Chat with the supermarket for further instructions
Features in the app for supermarket owners:
They can easily get an overview on the current orders, contact details and delivery address of customers. They can easily keep in track of their inventory and update the stocks regularly.
- Registration
- User profile
- Ongoing orders
- Previous orders
- Order description
- Barcode scanning
- Change order status
- Chat/Call the customer for clarifications
- Built-in map to show directions
Features in the admin panel:
The overall business operations can be effortlessly monitored from the admin panel. It is a web-based application that can be used to manage payments, ongoing orders, previous orders, customer queries, etc. Customers reach out to them via chat/call to clear their queries. Here are some of the essential features that you shouldn’t miss out on your app.
- Administrator login
- Manage stakeholders
- Review user profile
- List of supermarkets
- List of customers
- Manage category list
- Manage payments and transactions
Business models in on-demand grocery delivery service:
It is crucial that you choose your business model before starting to develop your application. Your choice will influence your app’s complexity, number of features, and revenue streams. Here are the most popular business models in the on-demand grocery delivery service.
Aggregator model:
Aggregator model will be the ideal business model if you don’t own a warehouse. You can directly connect the grocery stores with buyers. Your app will take care of orders placed by them and also handle the deliveries to the customer’s location. Instacart uses this business model and has hired delivery executives to deliver orders from supermarkets. Instacart also offers exclusive features like schedule delivery, shop by recipe, etc.
Store-pick model:
In the store-pick business model, the customers need not have to stand in long queues. The supermarket itself will pick the products from the list sent by the customer. The only difference between aggregator model and store-pick model is that customers will not get home deliveries. Peapod, an american online grocery delivery service, uses this business model. It works almost like a standard grocery store but offers more convenient options for customers.
Warehouse model:
If you own a warehouse or supermarket, you can implement the warehouse model to take your business online. You need to hire employees for packing and delivering groceries to the customer’s location. Walmart, an American multinational retail corporation that owns a chain of hypermarkets uses this business model. Their efficient business operations ensures that orders get delivered within hours.
In a nutshell:
Building an on-demand grocery delivery app for your business is almost a zero-risk endeavor as people need groceries on a daily basis. Each provider in the market has their set of advantages and limitations. A thorough research of the market will help you to get an overview of the statistics, underlying risks, drawbacks in your competitors services, expectations of your target audience, etc. The on-demand grocery delivery apps help you to fully automate the order deliveries, transactions and more, to easily manage your business. With so many enticing benefits, do not have second thoughts about investing in this flourishing business venture. You can seamlessly facilitate the trade between two ends of a supply chain.
