The pandemic and the associated lockdown have put a lot of restrictions on a lot of things. However, most of the things are not very essential and can be compromised on things like travel and dining out. We can even afford to not shop for apparel. However, it is impossible to live without groceries!
Grocery has always been an integral part of our everyday lives, and it is one of the very few things that did not see a massive exodus of people from their off-line experiences to apps. However, with the pandemic coming in, a lot of people have started to use grocery ordering apps for buying groceries. An on demand grocery delivery app is now a part of almost every smartphone.
The market and the projections
The time between February and March of the year 2020 can be considered a turning point for grocery delivery on demand. A lot of grocery delivery applications like Walmart and Instacart saw a massive spike from a measly 10,000 or 20,000 downloads to 50,000 downloads. The market does not show any signs of slowing down. The grocery sales over mobile apps in the USA that stood at $23.9 billion in 2018 is projected to grow to about $60 billion by 2023.
Looking at percentages throws an entirely different picture. In countries like China, FMCG contributes to about 6.2% of the total e-commerce revenue. With the onset of the pandemic, it can be expected that Asian countries will lead the market owing to the population. Already, South Korea is a market leader where about 20% of its total e-commerce belongs to the FMCG domain.
The different business possibilities
The world of grocery delivery applications is far from monotonous. There are different types of grocery apps that offer different solutions.
Some grocery apps belong to a chain of supermarkets or sometimes, even an isolated supermarket. When a customer orders using that app, the supermarket takes care to deliver the product to the user at their home. Both the market and the delivery is the responsibility of the supermarket.
Some grocery apps list grocery items on their interface, and the user can pick and choose what they want. The responsibility of the delivery, however, falls on the supermarket or the grocery store. In short, the app is only responsible for facilitating orders.
The third and the most popular and practical grocery delivery app is the one that takes care of both the order facilitation and the delivery. In most cases, when an order is placed, A professional shopper goes to the grocery store, fix the items, paste the bill, and delivers it to the customer. As you can understand, the grocery store is relieved of its responsibility to deliver, and the customer also gets their items home delivered.
The app ecosystem
Focusing on the third business, it is quite evident that there are different entities involved in the ecosystem. There are dedicated apps for the user, the grocery store, the shopper, and the administrator.
The user should be able to easily download and register for the services, either by using their email address or phone number or legacy credentials like Google and Facebook. The registration should create a profile for them that keeps a record of all the purchases, the transactions, the delivery addresses, the subscriptions, and the payment methods.
The user should be able to easily pick and choose items and add to the cart. The payment should be facilitated by using multiple payment methods, and for this purpose, the app should be tied up with a versatile payment gateway.
The GPS should help in precisely identifying the location of the user, and should also help notify users on the moment of their delivery executive. It should also help the delivery executive navigate locations that might not be familiar for them.
The delivery executive is, in most cases, provided with a specialized payment card using which they can make a payment to the grocery store. The settlement is finally calculated between the app business and the grocery store. In rare cases, there could be instances where The customer completes the payment online and it gets directly credited to the grocery store account.
The customer should be provided with a review and rating system that can help make the entire app ecosystem democratic.
The advanced features
While the features mentioned above can be considered more than adequate for the proper functioning of the app, certain features when forgot to sing can make the difference between the mediocre and the excellent, especially when it comes to the marketability of your app and your business.
– Chat & number-masked calls
Grocery is about uncertainty! There might be instances where you wanted a Pepsi but the store had only Coca-Cola products. This is the reason why the shopper should be able to communicate with you when shopping for your items, but at the same time, there should not be any compromise on your privacy. Therefore, it is highly recommended that your grocery app has a chat engine within itself. Even if there was a need to make calls, the Numbers should be masked.
– CRM integration
Customer service is one of the key differentiators when it comes to business success. Having a proper CRM in place will ensure that all customer committees are properly handled without any confusion and delay. In addition, the CRM can also help in marketing activities like pushing offers and discounts, reminding people of their pending grocery shopping, updating people about some unavailable item being available now, and a lot more.
– Voice search & smart devices/wearables integration
Siri and Alexa have redefined the way we communicate with the digital world. Your grocery mobile app should be able to take instructions from digital assistance and smart devices. The grocery search should also have voice recognition enabled, so people can easily search for items and add to the cart.
It would also be recommended that your grocery delivery app solution also includes smartWatch integration, especially for updates and confirmations.
– Business intelligence dashboards
Analytics is an integral part of any business. The administrator should be provided with a dashboard that provides the business intelligence. That will help them make calculated decisions on their next marketing or operational move.
The dashboard should contain intelligent bits of information like the most active hours of ordering, the most selling type of grocery item, the most appealing brand, and even the geographic location in which people are most active when it comes to ordering groceries.
Conclusion
Considering the market and the possibilities of profitability, now would be a perfect time to invest in grocery app development. Alternatively, if you already owned a supermarket, you could consider extending your business by tying up with a company that specializes in supermarket app development. Grocery mobile app development process is a grand culmination of extensive coding, intuitive design, and aggressive marketing. Any grocery app developer will tell you that developing a grocery delivery app from scratch will consume a lot of time and money.
You can, in the interest of speeding up your grocery app development process, can go for a white label grocery delivery app solution. Going for a white label on demand delivery app will ensure that the grocery delivery app development process does not consume a lot of time and money.
Since the white label solution is a product, you can be assured that the app will be free from bugs that will interfere with the basic functions.
All you need to do is get in touch with a company that specializes in white label on demand grocery delivery app development and customization. They will take care to understand the requirements and present you with perfect business solutions that will help you launch your brand into the space of grocery delivery applications, so you can take a piece of the pie when it comes to profit!