Find out some of the things you need to know in order to start your own grocery store business.
The retail industry is one of the fastest growing industries today and is considered as a vital part of our economy. The chief purpose of this industry is to provide goods and merchandise to the consumers. They get their products straight from the manufacturer or via a wholesaler or distributor. Ultimately, these products are sold to customers for consumption.
These goods are vast and varied. Retailers may sell anything and everything from food to apparel to electronics and so on. A grocery store for the most part offers food (both fresh and dry) and other household essentials.
Starting a grocery store business may pose as a challenge if you are not equipped with the proper information. The business has several aspects that you need to focus on and study if you want your efforts to yield results.
Begin with yourself. You don’t need to have prior retailing experience. All you need is the right attitude and the ‘customer-first’ mindset. An effective grocery store owner knows how to multitask. He is able to make swift yet calculated decisions. He is hard working and is not afraid to work long hours.
Planning is essential as you begin to stock up your store. This keeps you form buying items that at first may seem like a good idea until you notice that they’re just gathering dust on the shelves. Unless you have experience to back you up, there is no way you can be 100% correct in your inventory forecasting that is why you need to plan and at the very least conduct a market research. With adequate planning and research, you will be able determine what you need to buy and how much. If need be, conduct a survey. You can also ask the manufacturers themselves for their most popular product. Be keen though for they may not always give you a straight answer.
Exercise diligence in scouting for the best possible resource for your products. See to it that you get the lowest deal thereby allowing you to give the best mark-up price.
Enticing your shoppers with the products you have on hand is difficult if you have limited space. Therefore, you need to be crafty. Make sure that impulse items (magazines, sweets, etc) and high priced items are allocated in an area within your store where there is heavy customer traffic. See to it that your fast moving products (milk, bread etc) are displayed near the back of the store space. The idea here being, your shoppers will have to pass through several aisle of products they may not have considered on buying had they not seen it.
A final note. In light of the number of grocery stores and supermarkets out there, is there room for more? Most definitely! The key is to create your own market niche. To do this, you need to have a unique selling point. You may want to sell hard-to-find premium products that most supermarkets don’t have on stock. Use your creativity. Think of a distinct concept that is entirely yours. Or you can improve on what’s already out there. The key is to offer something that customers cannot get anywhere else.
