With other businesses fighting hard to sustain in the COVID crisis, the online grocery business is flourishing. The pandemic has for the first time inspired many customers all over the globe to purchase online groceries. The situation in other countries such as India, Canada, Italy, and France is no different.
A grocery marketplace platform will be helping many small vendors to sell groceries online. The outbreak has anticipated the in-store visits for foodstuffs and groceries to critical decline and people are more cautious and making proactive online purchases for food, groceries, medicines, and other household things.
Shopping patterns formed by consumers in the midst of self-isolation may become a standard for imagining new possibilities for the future. The global market size of online grocery business is estimated at US$ 27.5 billion and the further growth projected was to hit US$ 129.5 billion by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of 24.8% in 2019–25.
Look around to see competent strategies and marketing plans before starting your own marketplace grocery store. How do you carve your niche in the market? We have developed two modules focused on customer comfort and security for helping you build up your own Multivendor Grocery Marketplace. Before rushing to modules, let us understand the business model it follows.
Insight into the Multivendor Grocery Business Model
The grocery business model can either be an inventory model or a Marketplace model. But with the Multi-Vendor marketplace extension, you can make the hybrid model for your grocery marketplace. A model in which the admin and the seller both can sell their products and services is coined as the hybrid model. To make a multivendor marketplace that will bring more traffic, you must take care of the user experience and convenience.
Attract with Alluring UI
An attractive user interface is the most important part of a website or application developed for Multivendor Grocery Marketplace. Not just attractive but it should be efficiently designed and completely accessible. You must take care of the page loading time, product category display management, secure and flawless transactions, and transparency.
Location is the key
If you want to start a hyperlocal grocery marketplace then the combination of Multi-Vendor Marketplace Extension and Hyperlocal Marketplace Extension is worth adding. Multivendor Marketplace Extension will help you and the seller for managing the admin and seller interface along with explicit front-end while the Hyperlocal Marketplace Module will provide you location input option. Location and time are the two major factors for the hyperlocal grocery business.
Simplified Product Listing
For a successful multi-seller grocery marketplace, a simplified product listing and order handling management system are vigorously needed. The product finding should not be difficult for customers. Before starting up, you can ask for the demands and types of products people prefer. An online survey can be conducted.
Even your strategy should dwell on what your clients don’t want. Try focusing on both positive and negative feedback. Keep a record of the grocery products your customers disliked.
Multiple Payment Gateways and on-time Shipping
Offer customers several payment methods on your multi-seller grocery marketplace. Add a quicker payment gateway like PayPal, Stripe, etc. and let the customers make payments at the click of a button. Avoid using a payment method that people have not heard of because they prefer only reliable and secured gateways.
In any on-demand business, shipping is the most important factor, particularly in grocery. Delivering quality grocery products on time will help you attract customers. No matter how good your App Design is, or how smooth your checkout process is, you’ll lose the entire game if you have a bad distribution network.
Modules which can help you start your grocery business:
1. Create your Marketplace for Grocery business:
The module allows you to make a multi-vendor marketplace for your grocery business. It is mobile responsive and compatible with the mobile App. Also, supports the return manager module.
Admin and Seller benefits of Marketplace
Easy Vendor Registration: The multi-vendor marketplace allows easy seller registration from both the admin panel and the front end of the marketplace. Any small or big grocery business owner can register on your marketplace.
Easy Seller Monitoring and Management: Admin and seller both are allowed to track the orders from the admin interface and seller interface. The product listing can be done by the admin end as well as the seller end.
Commission Handling: Admin can easily define, edit, and manage commission on goods- charged by a vendor, and commission on delivery- for delivery staff, on the eCommerce platform for grocery stores.
Effortless Category and Product Management: The multivendor marketplace has an effortless category and product management functionality. The store owner is allowed to check the added product and permit the seller if he can sell that product or not.
Versatile Approach: All Product types are supported with a multivendor marketplace module. You can add many products in a different category. A grocery business with several products will grab customers to your website.
Track Grocery Orders: Admin can track seller orders and sellers can track customers’ orders.
Add Custom Fields on seller page: for seller profile, admin can show custom fields on seller front page and make custom fields as many as required
Effective Membership Plans for the grocery sellers: Admin can allow sellers to opt for a membership plan. Sellers should subscribe to the plan to get their items published in the admin shop. Sellers to turn off their membership plan if possible. Also, he can set a one-time setup charge for the plans he makes for sellers.
About Seller Dashboard: Your grocery marketplace seller dashboard in the marketplace module will help you monitor your progress as a seller, maintain outstanding customer service, and maintain your account in good standing. All sellers have access to the seller standards dashboard.
Transaction Payout Request: Seller can ask for the payment to the admin. Admin can auto-update the settings for payments.
The seller can add custom shipping methods: Multiple custom shipping methods can be added by the seller for product delivery.
Track Earnings: The seller can track the orders from the seller’s dashboard and keep a record of earnings.
Link Social Accounts: Link your grocery business with various social accounts that can help you increase brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Email Notifications: This functionality allows admin and seller to send email notification for order updates and other parameters.
Customer Benefits:
Multiple Choices from Multiple Vendors:
In a multi-vendor marketplace, a customer gets multiple choices from multiple sellers. The cost comparison is easier and the competition always plays an important role in a business.
Feedback is Important:
Your credibility for your brand depends on the vendors listed in your market place. But you have to make sure none of them ruins your brand name with their unprofessional services. Your main goal should be to have reputable vendors on your marketplace. To do that, you have to get customer feedback and take action accordingly. Highly reviewed products and with good ratings will be the preference of many.
Easy Return/Refund:
Grocery comes in fast consuming goods category but your marketplace should be ready with the unexpected situations in case a customer needs to return any item. The multi-vendor marketplace module is compatible with the return and refund manager module available on the Knowband store.
A customizable and optimized marketplace module can help you in starting a new Grocery Multivendor Marketplace. You can find detailed information about the module on our product page. This extension is available for PrestaShop, OpenCart, and Magento 2 stores.
2. Hyperlocal Marketplace:
Grocery should be delivered on time hence the idea of Hyperlocal grocery business came into the picture. The hyperlocal Marketplace module is available for the PrestaShop store. It allows the admin to add a location in which the owner wants to operate the marketplace.
All the features of Hyperlocal Marketplace are similar to the Multi-Vendor Marketplace module but it has some additional functionality to support on-demand delivery. Time, Geo-location, and distance parameters, which are the major requirements for Hyperlocal Grocery Marketplace businesses are integrated into this module.
Define the radius of the marketplace: Admin can set the radius and distance in any parameter where he wants to operate the grocery business. Suppose, 25km radius is set by the admin then he will operate anywhere but not beyond 25km of the distance.
Customers can enter the Geo-location: While searching for a product, a pop-up will appear on the screen of the customer which will ask them to enter the location for product delivery.
Live location or Pincode: There are two ways a customer can choose their location, they can go for the live location or enter the Pincode. Now, the marketplace will display products from the sellers delivering in that location.
Multiple Shipping methods for multiple delivery locations- It allows the seller to provide different delivery modes for every location. They are allowed to select the location for delivery by adding the Pincode or according to the region/area details.
Delivery Charges: Seller can charge for the delivery either by weight or by distance. It is customizable from the seller dashboard.
Admin can review the location: Admin is allowed to review the locations entered by sellers and approve them.
To understand the module in detail and its features and benefits for customer, seller, and admin, you can visit our product page here.
Wrapping Up
Maximize the efficiency of a multivendor marketplace with technologies such as automation, organizational flexibility, and bundling resources, during and after the pandemic. The grocery marketplace has tremendous scope by 2025. Even during and after the pandemic, the grocery market is flourishing all over the world. This is the right time to start your Multi seller Marketplace or a Grocery Delivery business.
If you need any kind of assistance for setting up a marketplace for your grocery or any other industry, our customer support team is ready to help in your new journey. You can visit the Knowband store or write to us at support@knowband.com
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