Savvy money for small shops

We are starting a series of articles on low-budget marketing for SMEs, where we will share non-obvious and easy-to-implement features for increasing sales. This material will be useful to owners of small stores of varying degrees of remoteness from megacities.

If you are the owner of a small grocery store, one of the options to increase sales is to offer customers not only the products, but also the services they need. For the idea to work, you need to grope the “pain” of existing and potential buyers and offer a personalized solution. How to do this, said Olga Karpus, marketer, business consultant.

Who are all these people and what do they want

The first thing to start with is to figure out who and what you will be offering. To do this, observe those with whom you deal daily. Who are these people, what are they buying, how often do they do, what difficulties are they experiencing. Analyze the information collected and develop a proposal taking into account the characteristics of people and places.

If this is, for example, a village where there are many elderly people to whom adult children come once a month, form grocery sets with basic products for a week: bread, butter, eggs, meat, vegetables, etc. To expand the offer, you can make three options in different price segments: economy, medium, premium. And tell people that you are ready to deliver fresh food to their aged parents every week. So that those did not have to carry bags on themselves. This can be especially beneficial if you take an advance payment a month in advance: you get the money in advance, you buy the goods according to your needs and you know for sure that it will not run out. Plus, it is more likely that older children will buy more expensive products than older parents would buy themselves.

The same proposal can be used in summer cottages, where urban residents come for the summer and don’t want to burden themselves with unnecessary efforts, and in ordinary towns where the population lives permanently, and knows about convenient service only from series.

But decency is more important than ever. No cracked eggs, rotten tomatoes and fading greens. If the thought crept in in such a way to sell illiquid assets, it is better not to start. The idea will fail, and the reputation will collapse.
Another option: packages with a set of products for a specific situation with delivery to the venue. For example, these may be picnic sets. And also several types of filling: a picnic with children, a picnic for adults, a picnic with alcohol and snacks. This can work especially well in popular weekend locations.

Consider psychology

The price for delivery should be such that a person, having learned about the service, thinks something like this: “Super, I will give ten / twenty / fifty hryvnias, but I won’t drag myself to the store in such heat” or “The price is twenty, but you can lie comfortably under the condition or in the shade of a birch, but they’ll bring me everything. ”
If we are talking about the elderly, it would be nice to make the delivery free. Otherwise, most of the old people who lived under the Soviet Union would prefer to heroically pull the cart from the last forces, but so that the kids do not overpay. Find a reasonable compromise here. It is best to cover shipping costs at the expense of the benefits of prepayment.
But if we are talking about people on vacation, then prices may be higher than when buying in a store. There is already an extra charge for the service.

TIP: Only without hands

Think over the packaging. In the summer it should be cooler bags. And inside is a simpler package that needs to be sealed. Although not a wax seal of the heirloom ring of the monarch, but the buyer must be sure that no one touched his products on the way with his hands.

Win in contrast

Even if delivery services from supermarkets work in your location, you can still compete for the buyer due to flexibility and a “human face”. And win in contrast.

Anyone who has ever encountered the delivery of goods by such companies will immediately name a few reasons why I would never want to deal with them again. This and "your goods have left, they will call you back, wait," and "delivery of goods from 9 to 18, we can’t say exactly in time", and "we sent the goods, for all questions call the delivery service." And here are five calls in half an hour “we cannot find your home”, etc. At the same time, with whom exactly do you communicate is a mystery.

In order for your shipping offer to work, everything should be different. You work in a certain territory, within the framework of one district, urban settlement, holiday village, resort area, etc.

Fine. Firstly, if you are the owner of a store in such a place, you are probably somehow connected with it. For example, live right there. Or once lived. Or sometimes come. Or one of your relatives and friends lives here. If so, most likely they know you here and you, as a person and a business owner, have a reputation. It is desirable that she be good. This will play a plus for you. You will immediately have a credit of trust. And your proposal has a “human face”.

Secondly, it would also be nice to hire a local delivery man, Uncle Vasya. He must know all the streets, alleys, dead ends. And people should know him. And yes, his reputation should not raise questions either. A local marginal who wants to earn a penny will not do. I think everyone knows the case of a pimple-chipped girl in the lowest position and her sad influence on sales. So, Uncle Vasya should be its exact opposite. Polite and reliable.

TIP: Cache or not cache

More payment options, good and different. Yes, I'm talking about terminals. And figurative as well. And about the possibility of making a prepaid card. Yes, this is an additional cost. But somehow, at your leisure, figure out how many people wanted to buy, but did not buy, because they did not have cash with them. Honestly cry over volumes of goods not bought and figure out how to make it convenient for everyone.

Have a good sales!