What Does It Take to Start an Online Grocery Business in India

Selling grocery and other daily use products online, stores can start a sales avenue at little extra cost. People buy grocery no matter what the state of the economy. As you can stop going cinema or restaurant or other places for leisure, but you can't live without grocery, toothpaste, soap and other daily households. The reasons like city's fast-paced life, tedious commuting, and extended working hours leave consumers with very thin time to go out to buy grocery and other daily use products. This post is centered around how to start grocery business in India.

Buyers feel comfortable buying apparel, shoes, electronics and other items online. In this, improved comfort with online payment and home delivery, selling grocery and daily use products is becoming popular by the days coming.

Retail Opportunity

With increasing internet connectivity and online customer base, entrepreneurs have witnessed the potential of grocery e-commerce, like online grocery storein Gurgaon has done. Also, a good understanding of particular retail market, creative thinking and excellent customer service may help you build a great business.

Currently, a good number of e-grocers are existing and majority of them offer their services in metros and major metropolitan centers.

As per a study says that a household spends the most on grocery and daily essentials. Keeping this in view, selling online grocery has huge potential. In online grocery business, COD is preferred mostly, it depends on e-grocers whether they integrate payment gateway to their online portal or not. Also, e-grocers can avoid the need of logistic tie-ups as their own employed delivery staff can handle the delivery workload. This way, e-grocers get the payment same day. Though with the coming of big players in this section, the competition is growing gradually but constantly and only grocery based e-commerce have to make big efforts to remain in the main stream.

Here are the steps to start online grocery business in India.

1. Arrangement of Stock

Either you can tie-up with a present store initially or can have your own stock. Prepare a list of products with their margins that you want to keep in store then arrange them accordingly.

2. Register Your Firm

You'll have to register your firm. Initially, proprietor or partnership will do to make a start. Then get a VAT for sales tax submission. In this, a chartered accountant will assist you.

3. Develop Local Delivery System

You will have to decide your range for delivery, say 5km, 10km or whole city. Arrange number of delivery boys with bikes as per your business scale.

4. Develop a Website

Get the service of skilled professionals to develop your e-grocery website. Then upload the required product images on it. You can also showcase 2-3 attractive offers on your site, like grocery store in gurgaon does, as it is a good business practice.

5. Payment Method

You can give COD facility to your customers as they prefer this mode of payment most. Also, your delivery staff will be delivering the ordered goods directly to customer' house, this way, you will receive payment same day unlike other e-commerce where Currier companies collect cash on their behalf and give them after a week, deducting COD charges. As an option, you can add to your portal payment through credit/debit cards or internet banking, to further facilitate your customers. To add this another mode of payment to your website, you need to integrate payment gateway with it. The service will charge you a certain amount and give you the money after 5 days. Considering all, COD is more suitable.

6. Marketing

For marketing, you can use newspaper advertising, pamphlet, SMS, hoarding, door to door meeting etc, with location based online marketing.

Suggestions

1. Make an Android app of your website as today's house wives use smart phones so it will be easy for them to order.

2. Put a Hindi and English button each at the top of your website, or write names in both the languages for easy understanding to those who don't know English or English names of many grocery items, like jeera, lehsun etc.

3. Also put customer care number at the top of your site and provide your customers a facility to order on phone, as many people like to order that way.

4. Show different package sizes of products on product list page, say 250gm, 500gm, 1kg, and others.

5. In second phase, you can extend your services with, like selling bakery items, orders from restaurants and others, you find suitable, in-demand and profitable to deal in.

6. You can charge the sum of Rs.30 to Rs.80 on order amount below Rs.250, or likewise suitable to your business.

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Investment Heads

1. Stock

2. Delivery bikes/vans

3. Store house with small office (preferably rented, or owned)

4. At least 6 months backup for salary and other marketing expenses

Feasibility Check

If you earn Rs.80 gross profit from margin and delivery charge in one delivery, you need to make 100 deliveries in a day to extend gross profit to Rs.8000, means 2,40,000/month. And on an average, after deducting salary, electricity and other operational charges, you can earn a healthy profit of Rs.1,50,000/month in this scale of business.

Above piece of writing is to give you a fair idea about what does it take to start an online grocery business in India. Its success depends on taking your plans on paper to reality in the way most suitable to today's grocery consumer' needs and your approach toward doing a good business with them.