7 Proven Tips for Starting a Grocery Business

If you are planning to start a grocery store, forget the manual, outdated, and time-wasting methods that waste time, energy, and effort; rather, embrace new and innovative approaches based on digital technology to help your grocery store business grow more quickly, because historically, the grocery store business has had a bit of a bad reputation in Indonesia—the bad reputation has been associated with dirty floors, non-air-conditioned shops, cheaper prices, manual bookkeeping, and not accepting cashless payments.

However, bad reputation aside, do you want to know how today a grocery store can accept cashless payments and manage modern bookkeeping?

Today’s advancement of digital technology has led to digitalization in every field, including the grocery store industry, where today it is no longer uncommon to see barcode scanners being used for sales transactions in grocery stores. Moreover, devices such as cashier applications, PCs, and tablets are beginning to replace traditional methods that relied on cash registers and calculators in grocery store transactions.

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What should you consider when starting a grocery store? 

The following are 7 proven tips that you can apply when starting your own grocery store business with a system as advanced as a supermarket.

1. Choosing a Strategic Location for Your Grocery Store

Firstly, location is the most important factor for success when starting a grocery store, so carefully choose a strategic location. Some considerations for selecting a strategic location include:

• A location that is easily visible to a large number of people, such as on a boulevard or main road in a residential area; 
• A location within a densely populated residential area; 
• A location that is frequently visited by many people, such as near a market, a place of worship, an office building, or a school building; 
• A location with plenty of parking space, where customers who drive will feel safe parking their vehicles; 
• A flood-free location. The rainy season can cause flooding that can damage your store’s inventory. So, make sure to check if your store is in a flood-free area, and.
• A location that is sufficiently far from other supermarkets or minimarkets is your competition.

If the above points are met, don’t hesitate to start your grocery store business.

Read Also: Trendy Drink Business with Low Capital and High Profit

2. Digital Technology Innovation

Secondly, various innovations developed by digital technology experts can be used to manage any business, including grocery stores, and applying digital technology to the operational management of your grocery store will substantially reduce tasks. Implementing digital technology innovations to allow your grocery store to accept cashless payments with QRIS features is a great opportunity for starting your grocery business.

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Applications such as QRIS (Quick Response Indonesia Standard) payment features and all cashless transaction features developed by Youtap are great opportunities for starting your grocery store business, and choosing a singular app for your grocery store business activities is a smart move because you do not need multiple apps that will only make things complicated. 

Rather, use one app that has all of the necessary features, such as Youtap’ POS. 

Choosing a single app for all your grocery store business activities is a smart move because you do not need multiple apps that will only make things complicated, as just one app that has all the necessary features.

Features of a business management app for grocery stores can help you:

• Accurately and quickly record inventory movements;
• Assist cashiers in completing transactions with integrated cashier programs, printing receipts, and handling cashless transactions;
• Evaluate products that are most popular with customers; 
• Have customer data, so you can track and provide services to loyal customers; and 
• Monitor your business remotely and see real-time transaction activity at your store

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3. Surveying Consumer Needs

Thirdly, inventory turnover is crucial in a grocery store business because items that sit too long in the stockroom may become damaged, leading to customers avoiding them.

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Also Read: 5 Tips for Successfully Starting a Home Business

To prevent this, it is important to understand which products your customers need before stocking up on too many items. This can be done through a consumer needs survey. You can observe the products in nearby stores and shops to see which ones sell quickly and which tend to accumulate over time. 

This survey can also help identify your competitors and show how they set prices for popular products like groceries and other consumer goods.

4. Business Capital

Fourthly, starting a grocery store requires capital, and your initial capital should come from your own personal savings. Furthermore, when starting out, avoid being burdened by bank loan interest, especially when inventory turnover and customer volume are still uncertain. You need to understand that the goods you sell usually need to be bought in cash from suppliers, unless you're purchasing in bulk, where you might get more favorable payment terms, so in this it is important that you wisely manage your capital.

Also Read: Business Owners Must Know, Here’s How to Manage Business Capital Effectively!

5. Finding Affordable Product Suppliers

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Fifthly, with the increasing number of grocery stores, supermarkets, and mini-markets, competition is getting more intense; therefore, you must carefully consider your sales prices and the quality of your products. To offer the best prices on every item you sell, you need to be smart about finding the most affordable suppliers, because having competitive prices will make it easier for your grocery store to compete.

6. Organizing Products to Attract Store Visitors

Sixthly, consumers often come into a store because they are attracted to the items displayed at the store front or window display. Therefore, your product placement should be well considered and not an afterthought when starting your grocery store. To help you in this, you can observe and replicate the product displays that you have seen in modern mini-markets or supermarkets, displaying your product’s prices clearly with large fonts. This will help to attract customers to find what they are looking for. 

Additionally, arrange items categorically to make it easier for customers to find what they are looking for. 

For example, detergents and bath soaps should not be mixed with food items.
And more importantly, it is essential that you do not sell goods that have expired, as this could deter customers and make them shop elsewhere, never returning to your store, and with Chinese whispers, negatively broadcasting to their friends and family about the poor quality of goods in your store. 

Read More: 4 Types of Cashless Payment Tools for MSMEs

7. Providing Excellent Service

Lastly, having a friendly attitude is a key factor in the success of your grocery store business, as friendly and sincere service is one of the main reasons customers return to your grocery store. These are 7 proven tips to help you start your grocery store business. 

Additionally, it is important that you have a good bookkeeping system to manage your grocery store. With a good, digitized business management app, you can manage daily sales transactions, stock levels, purchase prices, and other business-related data digitally. 

Fintech Youtap can help you start your grocery store business with a variety of solution features all in one app. The benefits of using Youtap, available on both the Google PlayStore and AppStore, for business owners include automatic transaction recording, easy payments via QRIS, and sales data analysis to help plan the next marketing campaign and sales strategy. 

So, use Youtap to ensure your grocery business has smooth payments to help your business grow. by downloading the Youtap app now, and register your business with them in under a minute! It will be time well spent!!