How To Start An Online Grocery Store In India

As a grocery store owner, your strength lies in your customers who visit your shop to purchase fresh produce and other items. But you are also aware that more and more shoppers are moving online to make their purchases.

That means you could lose out on your valuable customers if you do not offer an online option. In this article, we look at everything you need to know about how to open a grocery store online.

An online grocery store can be an extension of an offline shop that allows customers to place orders. Or it can be a standalone e-commerce website that only takes online shopping requests and delivers to their customers’ addresses.

As a well-known grocery shop in your locality, you know how to start a grocery store in India. But now it’s time to go online.

You can choose a simple online store that allows your customers to make purchases, either from the comfort of their home or even inside your shop. Or you can choose a full-fledged e-commerce store while still maintaining your kirana shop. 

The first step to knowing how to start online grocery store is to get the basics ready. 

Some things you need to keep handy before building your online grocery store include:

• Online grocery store logo: You can use the same logo as your offline shop for your local customers to recognise your online presence quickly.
• List the products: Since you already have an offline shop, you will know what products you will want to sell in your online store. All you need to do is add the product description of every item and upload good quality images.
• Provide a wide range of online payment gateways: Your offline store may accept payments through cash. But once you set up an online grocery shop, you must offer all popular payment methods like mobile e-wallet, UPI, cash on delivery, net banking, credit and debit cards and others.

Now that you’ve got your basic setup ready, let’s look at the step-by-step approach to starting the best online grocery store business.

• Delivery region: Find out the area where you want to serve your customers. Look into your local competitors and understand how they function to help you think of a concept unique to your store. Find out more about your local population, consumption patterns, preferences and other factors to know how to approach your customers.
• Register your online store: You can register your online grocery shop as a sole proprietorship firm, or if you have a partner, choose LLP registration. Speak to your tax consultant or chartered accountant to help you complete legal formalities and guide you through the process.
• Manage your inventory: Choose the right technology to manage your online inventory process. This is an essential aspect when building your online store. Whether you are managing an online-offline combination or an online-only business, having effective inventory management is crucial to the success of your business.
• Choose your delivery module: You can select a hyper-local delivery company or hire delivery executives exclusive to your business.
• Plan your marketing schedule: For customers to know more about your online grocery store, you will need to invest in marketing. From social media promotions, search engine optimisation (SEO), SMS and WhatsApp marketing and more, find out ways to improve your online business visibility in front of your customer base.
• Consider store scalability: As your online operations grow, you will need to look into ways of controlling heavy traffic. Partner with the right e-commerce provider that offers you advanced software to scale up and drive the performance of your shop to make it the best online grocery store in your locality.

In an industry where competition is constantly rising, you need to have an effective online store to sell your products.

A good ecommerce solution will not only increase customer traffic, but also help you profit from enhanced sales.

With Zadinga, you get an all-round solution to manage your inventory, payment and online presence. No need to buy expensive hardware and software anymore.

Zadinga gives you a simplified and easy-to-understand platform with best-in-class features to start your online grocery store quickly.  Get everything you need with Zadinga—from tracking inventory, managing fulfilment, detailed analytics, easy online support and more, today!