How To Build A Local Bestseller Grocery Store With StoreHippo Multi Store Ecommerce Solution

Multi Store ecommerce solution to sell grocery online

Shopping is a fun experience for most of us and no wonder it is called “Retail Therapy”. But can you think of a shopping schedule that seems more of a task rather than a refreshing and uplifting experience?

Yes, you are right, shopping for your grocery is a rather mundane activity detested by millions! 

A problem isn’t it!

Which translates into a lucrative business opportunity. 

Yes, you got it right!

Building an online grocery store that delivers daily essentials at your customers’ doorsteps is one of the most rewarding businesses of all times.

But wait, are you sure which business model should you adopt to become the local favourite?

How about trying the multi store ecommerce model for building your chain of online stores?

Want to understand why this model is good for your business?

Let’s check out;

Why you should build a chain of stores to sell grocery online

Globally the sales of everyday essentials saw a growth of 22% in 2019. And then COVID 19 happened! While the raging pandemic flipped our world upside down, it gave a tremendous boost to the online grocery business.

Did you know that;

• Online grocery sales grew by 30% in 2020
• The segment is expected to grow with 28% CAGR between 2020 and 2026

With social distancing being the new normal and customers conditioned by the convenience of buying online, shopping online for everyday essentials is a business that is here to stay and thrive.

While building an online store for your grocery business can suffice, building a chain of grocery store has its unique advantages. It not only gives you a competitive edge but also helps in building your brand.

Here are the top reasons to start your multi store ecommerce chain to sell foodstuff online

• Reach new markets by opening a sub-store for the city or the locality

• Offer unique products for a given locality/city

• Create different look, feel, discounts and deals to engage your customers better

• Easily add new sub-stores for new locations

• Go for targeted marketing to get better ROI

• Get the most relevant buyers who convert easily

• Build a brand by creating a network of stores with best products and services 

• Centralized control of your multi store ecommerce platform

Now that you see that unique benefit of the multiple storefronts model, you need to ascertain your requirements and then find the best solution to roll out your chain of stores. Doing all this can become super-easy if you have a detailed plan for various stages of your business. 

Multi Store ecommerce chain of grocery stores: The requirement

Let us get started by chalking out the requirements first. This will help us understand what we need and find the best ways to implement our requirements. 

• Set up location specific sub-stores for selling food grains, FMCG, everyday essentials, toiletries, green-grocery, milk and other items needed on daily basis

• Tie up with local grocery stores as vendors on your marketplace

• Design unique look and feel for each of your sub-stores

• Make mobile-ready sub stores and mobile apps to sell grocery online

• Offer a variety of payment options to your customers, preferable unique checkout flows for your regular buyers and premium buyers

• Manage a vast inventory for each of the grocery sub stores

• Add up to any number of location specific stores or products quickly

• Set-up unique offers and discounts on each of your sub-stores

• Use location-specific delivery boys fleet or logistics partners for faster and streamlined deliveries

• Create the best ecommerce systems by integrating with accounting, marketing, POS, ERP, CRM software of your choice 

With the requirements laid down we need the right solution to build a multi store chain. While building from scratch is an option, it can be too time and resource consuming. The easier and cost-effective alternative is to go with StoreHippo multi store ecommerce platform that offers an inbuilt solution to manage a chain of sub-stores from a common central admin. 

StoreHippo also comes with 300+ inbuilt features and tools to help you with running your end to end business.

Why StoreHippo is the best solution to build a local bestseller grocery store chain

StoreHippo offers a comprehensive multi store ecommerce solution for rolling out your chain of grocery sub-stores. Check out the unique features that not only help you in setting up a network of everyday essentials stores but also helps you make your business a success.

1. Complete multi store ecommerce solution

StoreHippo comes with a native solution for building any number of sub-stores. You can roll out new sub-stores in no time and also have unique URLSs for each of these stores. What’s more you can customize the look and feel of each of these stores to engage your customers better. You can also offer special discounts based on the local festivals or demands for a given product. You can even customize your sub-stores further by offering different languages and currency options on your sub-stores to cater to your customers in their preferred language and currency.

2. Native multi vendor solution

To survive in the competitive grocery market you either need to invest a lot on establishing local warehouses or tie-up with local vendors for faster deliveries. StoreHippo offers a complete online marketplace solution wherein you can onboard other shops as your local vendors and use their inventory to deliver quickly for any given city or locality. You can easily manage these vendors, their commissions and payouts using the  inbuilt vendor management system.

3. Sell better with mobile apps

StoreHippo builds mobile ready PWA stores that look, feel and work like mobile apps when opened in any browser. Also, you get an inbuilt mobile app builder that helps your build iOS and Android apps for your business. What’s even better is that you can build different apps for each of the sub-stores on your multi store ecommerce platform. With our preference for shopping on mobile this feature goes a long way in making your business popular among your customers.

4. Inherent scalability

Built grounds-up on the most advanced MEAN stack, StoreHippo offers you inherent scalability to grow your business. You can roll out any number of sub-stores for your multi store ecommerce platform, have a vast product catalogue, add any number of vendors and StoreHippo will easily accommodate your growth. StoreHippo also offers peak load tolerance and 99.9% uptime to run your business smoothly.

5. Multiple payment options

Most common reason for cart abandonment is lack of enough payment options. StoreHippo helps you navigate this problem by offering 60+ integrated payment solutions along with a host of local payment options like UPI, Paytm etc. You can offer different checkouts on different stores or customize the checkout for the premium and regular members on your multi store ecommerce platform.

6. Create unique solutions with headless commerce

StoreHippo is built on the headless architecture which allows you to offer extreme personalizations on your sub-stores. USing the 300+ API endpoints along with 120+ integrations you can design a unique buyer journey for your different customer segments. You can also sell on multiple customer touchpoints by easily adding new storefronts while the backend logic and processes on your multi store ecommerce platform remains the same.

7. Win your customers with hyperlocal ecommerce

With fierce competition in the grocery segment, nailing hyperlocal ecommerce is the smartest move that can make you a local bestseller. Inbuilt hyperlocal ecommerce solutions from StoreHippo help you direct your customers to the nearest sub-store from their location. You can then deliver their order faster using your own location-specific substores or your network of vendor stores for a given locality.

8. Seamless delivery solutions

Fast and seamless delivery is the backbone of a successful online business. StoreHippo comes with integrated shipping solutions to help you deliver seamlessly in domestic as well as international markets. You can easily set different shipping partners for each of the sub-store on your  multi store ecommerce platform. You can also add different shipping rates for the same shipping partners on different sub-stores. What's more you also get a complete delivery boy management solution to manage your own fleet of delivery boys for each of your sub-stores.

Conclusion

Now that you have the complete blueprint of starting your chain of online stores you can just need to take the plunge. Research your market well, make a list of products for different locations, onboard vendors to supply the products to you at reasonable rates and fix your profit margins.

For everything else- from building your chain of grocery stores to marketing and growing your business- StoreHippo has you covered. Book your demo right away to explore the amazing multi store ecommerce features in detail.