Why Local Grocery Stores Should Invest in Mobile Apps

2020 was the year that led to massive online adoption. Whether it is for the purchase of consumer electronics, medicines, groceries, or whatnot. The widespread pandemic forced people to adopt the online shopping regime. Till now, the wave of online shopping is on, even for daily grocery items.

As per stats, the percentage of shoppers buying groceries from a brick-and-mortar grocery store reduces by 19%. Before the pandemic, 63% of people bought groceries from the store. Now, it is just 44%. On the other hand, the number of shoppers who purchase all the regular household items from online stores jumped from 0.2% before the pandemic to 7.2% currently.

Hence, for local grocery shop owners, the future can be dark if digital adoption is not in their plans. Since food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato have also introduced the grocery shopping option, it is high time for local shop owners to invest in grocery app development.

Why is the Use of Technology Necessary for Local Vendors?

Many of you must be thinking about how these apps can affect you while your business is running smoothly. Well, there is nothing wrong with staying offline. However, there are several pros of bringing your business on the web.

The best way to bring your business to the web is via an app. They are convenient to use and can help you cover a wide scope of audience. As per stats, in 2022, Instacart was the most downloaded grocery delivery app in the US, with over 8 million downloads.

The stats are the clear proof that such apps have a lot of potential. Not just in the connected areas, but it will be a goldmine in your local area. In the next section, we will unravel some of the best reasons for local grocery stores to invest in mobile apps.

What is the Need for Mobile Apps for Grocery Stores?

When it boils down to the need for a mobile for local grocery stores, there are many of them! Let’s unwrap some of the top reasons to invest in a mobile app.

Convenience to customers

The first reason for choosing a mobile app for your grocery business is convenience. As a local grocery store owner, you may already have a lot of customers. With the use of a mobile app, you can allow your customers to book their groceries in advance and collect them whenever they want. You can also charge them a delivery fee if they want the groceries delivered to their doorsteps.

As customers can shop for their groceries without visiting the shop and from anywhere, it saves them a lot of hassle and time.

Better consumer service

With a mobile app, you can bestow your customers with better service. You can integrate various utilitarian features in the app, such as online payment, search filters, repeat order lists, push notifications, order tracking, etc.

These features can help your customers find the required products faster. Moreover, they can pay without making any physical contact and receive product availability alerts. The grocery app can also help customers track their orders. All these features enhance the customer experience.

Faster customer service

A mobile app allows customers to shop for their groceries from the comfort of their homes. This ensures less crowd in the shop and eliminates the transit time. As per stats, the average time a person spends at a grocery store is around 41 minutes, which is a lot. So, you can easily speed up the buying and delivery process, ensuring faster customer service with a mobile app.

Personalized experience

What if your customers never have to remember the products they need once they have used your app? As per stats, around 80% of customers are likely to make a purchase if they get a personalized experience. Therefore, based on customer data like current purchases and past purchase history, your app can provide personalized product recommendations and promotions.

This allows the customer to save time in finding the right products. Personalized experiences can also be useful in making extra money as you can target ads to the customers of similar products. It can help you upsell the products.

Less operational costs

The grocery mobile custom app development cost varies from $10k to $30k. Yes, this may seem high, but it is a one-time investment. With a mobile app, you can operate totally online, which helps in saving shop rent, workers' pay, and other costs that are required to entertain the customers in the store.

Other than this, the use of promotions and technology helps in reducing inventory (ordering the one that is required) and energy consumption in the stores. The overall effect of all this is reduced operational costs.

Competitive edge

If you are a local grocery store owner, an app will help you gain better visibility. As over 29% of people do their weekly shopping via their mobile devices, it is imperative that your business will be noted by the audience. With better visibility on the web, the chances of you surpassing your competitors will increase. However, it is important to release timely app updates to retain your customers.

FYI, online shopping is the fifth most popular online activity of smartphone users.

Quick feedback

If you are operating as a brick-and-mortar store, you may lose customers and may not even know it. On the other hand, with an app and online presence, you can record the reviews of the customers about your services. On top of that, you can accept suggestions from the customers.

You can improve your products and app based on the collected reviews and suggestions. Further, if your customers post a negative review, you can offer them some sort of redemption card, offer, or discount on their next purchase to retain them.

Faster and safer payments

Since the pandemic, the trend of contactless payments has been in effect. As per stats, global contactless card purchases are expected to surpass $10 trillion by 2027.

In the case of grocery stores, even if it is a supermarket, there are long queues at the billing counters, which leads to a lot of time wastage. It will take longer if you make contactless payments available at the counter.

Therefore, you can get an app for your local grocery store and eliminate the hassle of standing in long queues for your customers. Customers can pay in the app via net banking, UPI, and more.

Free word-of-mouth marketing

Stats suggest that word-of-mouth marketing can boost sales numbers by 5x, which is true. Getting an app for your local grocery store can help you significantly market your business.

Once your customers from the neighborhood start using your app, they will become free advocates of your business. Hence, word-of-mouth marketing will fetch you customers beyond your neighborhood.

Loyalty programs and notifications

Loyalty programs can be the cherry on the cake for your grocery app. In the app, you can introduce various loyalty programs like coupons, discounts, free shipping, etc. With the help of loyalty programs, you can boost customer retention by almost 25% or more.

Moreover, you can provide push notifications to your customers to increase the chances of sales. Push notifications can remind the customers about the product’s availability.

What are the Various Monetization Models for a Grocery Mobile App?

No matter how good your app is, if your revenue generation model is not good, it will not yield any benefits. So, we have some monetization model suggestions for your grocery mobile app.

Subscription Plans

One of the most prominent monetization models is the subscription model. In this, you can provide different plans with varying features like basic, intermediate, and premium. These plans can vary based on factors like discounts, access to great deals, free delivery, etc.

Delivery Fees

Delivery fee is applicable on every order. You can increase the delivery fee if the order is large and is demanded faster. Moreover, the fee can also be increased if the delivery is in an odd time slot.

E-commerce Store Integration

In the case of an eCommerce component, you can make money by charging commissions on products sold through your app. You can vary the commission rates based on the item rate and area.

In-App Purchases

Other than subscription plans, there are other ways to make money from free applications. You can offer in-app purchases like early access to deals, free shipping over a certain amount of shopping, reward points, fixed discounts every month, and more. Users can pay for these purchases within the app.

Transaction Fees

If the customer pays for the order through the app, you can deduct a transaction fee for the same. You can apply this to all types of orders and in-app purchases.

Conclusion

An app can be a great way to boost the revenue of your business. It will not only expand your reach but will also boost the overall customer experience. However, your app needs to be built professionally. If you are a local grocery store owner and want to bring your business online, Intuz is a grocery app development company that can help you.