Running a grocery store begins with putting customers first. 73% of customers agree that their experience at a store influences their buying decision. Some are willing to spend more money if it means being offered quality service. That said, a happy customer leads to a sales increase.
But it doesn’t end at customer satisfaction. Other factors you should consider are inventory management, store layouts, and employee training. It can get overwhelming thinking of it all at once.
Lucky for you, we’ve put together this list of tips for a successful grocery store. They’ll help you identify bottlenecks in your workflow and pain points in your business.
7 tips for running a successful grocery store
1. Choose a grocery store layout that works for you.
Your aisles are not just for aesthetics. Product placements and aisle arrangements are part of a strategy most grocery stores are familiar with.
They concentrate discount items on display shelves, which are different in shape and style from the regular aisles. They also carry special or discounted items and are usually at the front or focal point of the store.
The focal point is an area that’s easily noticeable and accessible. Regular aisles in the store are arranged in different layouts such as the Grid, Racetrack, Herringbone, Free-flow, Spine, Diagonal, and Mixed designs.
Grocery stores change their layouts from time to time. This is why your favorite grocery looks and feels unfamiliar sometimes.
Your store’s layout can bring about an increase in sales if utilized strategically. It’s essential to put much thought into it. It controls customers’ movements around your store, thus encouraging herd behavior. This is when customers move collectively or in similar fashions around the store.
Customers who see others buying certain items may be influenced to do the same, therefore increasing sales.
Before you choose a new store layout, consider the following factors:
- Design a map of your store to get a visual idea of how to arrange your aisles.
- Take room measurements to help you determine the size of your shelves and how many aisles you’d need.
- Monitor customer movement and behavior using store cameras. The footage should tell you the aisles they visit the most and how to rotate shelves to give low-traffic aisles more visibility.
- Consider your checkout point. For small grocery stores, your cashier should sit at the front. Cashiers in large grocery stores like Walmart can sit at the rear end of the store.
2. Appeal to the sensory experiences of customers
Most customers prefer to shop in physical stores because they’d rather see, feel, and touch products before buying than just ordering online. To convert this population into long-term customers, you will need to practice sensory marketing.
Sensory marketing involves attracting all five of the human senses. That means, from the moment a customer walks in, they should be able to form a connection with your grocery store through sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
To establish good sensory marketing, here are some best practices to follow:
A. Clean up your store’s appearance.
A dusty entrance door or shelf can easily dissuade customers from staying long. It shows them how much effort you’re putting into improving their experiences (which isn’t a lot). Basic store maintenance is vital for both the exterior and interior parts of your store.
B. Invest in LED lights.
They’re the best type of lighting for grocery stores because they don’t distort how products appear. Under LED lights, customers know that what they’re seeing is exactly how it is. With color lights or fluorescents, products may appear darker or unnatural. Also, some LED lights kill bacteria, which is excellent since you deal with consumable and personal care items.
C. Encourage customers to touch products.
Keep products within customers’ reach. That way, they can pick up a product, feel the texture or quality, then make their buying decision faster. If your shelves are high up and inaccessible, shoppers may be discouraged from buying products.
D. Create a unique scent.
When you’re at Starbucks, you know you’re at Starbucks. The smell of coffee in their cafes is usually intense, and that’s part of their sensory marketing strategy. It’s so important that the store decided to cancel serving breakfast. The smell of cheese and eggs was interfering with their precious coffee smell.
Before you choose a scent for your store, do this simple exercise:
- Imagine your customers’ reactions and how you want them to feel when they walk into the store.
- Map out points in your store where you can place the scents.
Avoid scented candles. Not only are they flammable, but they’re not strong enough to give you enough coverage. Also, avoid air fresheners as they contain harmful chemicals and clog up the nose or throat.
Instead, opt for oil diffusers. Diffusers need only water and a few drops of oil to make a room smell pleasant. Also, they’re affordable.
E. Provide tasting samples.
Sam’s Club, Costco, Whole Foods Market, and Trader Joe’s are some of the best stores to get free food samples from. You can request to taste a drink or a snack at Whole Foods, and the store employees will open up a sample for you. Trader Joe’s has a stand or separate section dedicated to displaying sample products.
You could even go the extra mile to host sample days when customers can try out varieties of grocery store items. For example, fresh fruits, local dishes, perfumes, body sprays, and more.
3. Use automated inventory management systems.
Integrating Inventory management systems with your sales channels can help you prevent over and under-stocking. These factors are why businesses lose billions every year.
Using automated software to track how products move in and out of your warehouses will prevent such heavy losses. Immediately a customer places an order in-store or online, the software processes it, and generates an invoice for the order.
Every process becomes more manageable from picking, packing, and delivery because you now have accurate data to work with. If a product is out of stock, the software reflects this information across all your sales channels. This way, order processing errors are avoided.
Some inventory management software you can use to track your stock include:
4. Create personalized experiences for customers.
56% of customers say they want service platforms to display content based on their interests. To make that possible, most modern businesses collect personal user data online via web tracking. Based on what they search for on your online sales channels, you will know what to recommend.
Best Buy is an example of a stores that uses personalization to the max. Any time you go to a Best Buy store near you, open the app. It will automatically switch to Local mode. This mode tailors a shopping experience just for you. You get notifications and recommendations based on products that the store has.
Amazon is also on the personalization train. The online giant has Recommenders separated into “Best Sellers”, “Most Viewed”, and “Frequently Bought Together” sections. Whenever you click on a product, Recommenders show you other products closely related to what you’re viewing.
Here’s how you can offer personalized services for customers:
- Collect accurate data. You can use customer database software, such as Zendesk, Zoho, and HubSpot Sales Hub.
- Create customer profiles for individual customers based on the collected data.
- Train employees to be resourceful. Let them know how to recommend products, give customers choices, and offer support instead of giving generic answers. Teach them to analyze customer behavior and determine the best approach to their moods.
- Compile self-help resources on your website for customers. For example, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section, Video walkthroughs on shopping processes, Blogs for information, and more.
- Connect with and support customers via social media.
- Don’t just collect customer feedback. Develop a plan to effect changes in line with their suggestions and address complaints to make them feel heard.
- Combine your brick-and-mortar business with online shopping. Let customers have access to you from multiple channels.
- Offer mouthwatering deals. For example, if a customer likes shopping for hot pepper sauce online, send them special coupons for hot pepper sauces via email or texts.
5. Invest in employee training.
You can’t be everywhere at once, which is why staff training is essential. Employees are the middlemen between you and customers as they have direct contact with them more times than you do. You want to ensure that they listen to and treat customers well.
While this task sounds easy, employees are not robots. They also have emotions, which rude shoppers can easily trigger. When that happens, your employees should know how to handle such situations properly. This way, you don’t lose those customers, and you get a second chance to improve their shopping experiences.
Training employees is not a day’s work. But with time and dedication, you can teach them to be resourceful and helpful to customers. Here are some ways to achieve that:
- Hire only who you need. Emulate Aldi’s strategy. The store’s employees are multitaskers who perform different roles. For example, one employee can be a cashier and cart pusher. Occasionally, your staff can rotate shifts until you can afford more hands on deck. It’ll be easier to train them since you have few staff.
- Begin training processes from the orientation and onboarding stages. Present new employees with made-up scenarios and assess their responses. Teach them the proper way to address each scenario.
- Create a schedule and timetable for training outside regular work hours to train employees. Try not to overwhelm them with information.
- Group employees into partners and give them assignments. This strategy will acclimate new employees faster to the work environment and help them learn quicker.
- Invest in quality training materials. While you may not like the idea of spending extra funds, the resources to train employees are worth it. They include printing employee manuals, recording training videos, and more. You can compile everything into a Retail Learning Management System (LMS), so they can view it all in the same place.
- Award outstanding employees with rewards. It will motivate others to perform better at their jobs.
6. Partner with third-party logistics (3PLs).
Consider partnering with same-day third-party grocery delivery services like Instacart and Shipt. That is, until your store is ready to start bearing the weight of deliveries on its own.
The cost of handling customer deliveries can put a strain on your business, especially if you’re just starting. 75% of businesses agree that 3PLs significantly reduce those costs.
3PLs can also help you broaden your reach. Tory Gundelach, Senior Vice President of Retail Insights, says:
The other benefit to retailers is it gives them the ability to deliver to places that would be inefficient or not close to a retail location.
You wouldn’t need to open store branches all over the city. For example, if you have a few stores, you can partner with services like Instacart and integrate your online store with their website or app. Customers can order your products through these channels and Instacart drivers will deliver the products to their addresses. It’s as simple as that!
7. Leverage top-notch security systems.
Theft is inevitable. There are roughly 550,000 shoplifting cases per day in America. These numbers are why having top-notch security systems is necessary.
Stores like Walmart incorporate AI technology. Since Walmart switched to self-checkout stations, its employees now use handheld scanners to track shoplifting. They can see an item on the device whenever you scan it at the counter. If you cancel the item from your list and bag it with the intention of not paying, Walmart will know.
While not every store can afford to circulate high-end tech among its employees, here are some steps you can take to protect your grocery store:
- Install security cameras around the store.
- Choose a store layout that makes every aisle or section visible to employees and security cameras.
- Offer curbside pickup or home delivery services. They will reduce the number of customers that shop in-store, thus reducing the chances of theft.
- Install silent panic buttons in the store. They will minimize the chances of victimization in cases where the store is robbed at gunpoint.
Conclusion
There is no one-size-fits-all strategy to running a grocery store. Every store owner or manager is different. Take your time in reflecting on your vision and goals. Itwill help you create a business model that aligns with them.
You may be tempted to “borrow” another store’s business model, but that’s only a recipe for disaster. Only use such model’s as a source of inspiration, and not a complete replacement for your strategy.
Overall, be open to change. As time passes, your grocery store will most likely outgrow your business model. You’ll discover that those strategies and processes you once used no longer work for you. That’s a sign that you need to choose a new model.
Irene is a Freelance content writer who helps professionals and startups build an audience with original content online. She has written over +100 articles, and is backed up by 3 years experience. She loves gaming and listening to music, while she’s not tapping furiously on her laptop.