2024 Tips on How to Increase Sales in Supermarkets and Grocery Stores

With constant deals and offers, brands are available at lucrative prices. Most families or couples prefer weekly shopping to stock up for the following days. Stores and supermarkets are conveniently located in most neighborhoods for time-pressed customers. Some customers choose to exercise their sustainability awareness and shop at local groceries or farmers' markets. They prefer to buy at higher rates instead of the freshness of produce and to reduce their carbon footprint.

Competition gets increasingly intense every single day. Online shopping, especially after Covid, continues to be a popular option, as it allows customers to shop from the comfort of their homes and deliver to their doorstep. Apps by dark stores with super quick turnaround times are eating into their share of real-world shopping.

Supermarkets and grocery stores need to turn shopping into an experience to keep the customers coming in through the doors. These ten tips and strategies will help increase sales at storefronts, whether it is a local store or a supermarket.

1. Know The Customer.

Customers are the nucleus around which the retail business revolves. Define your core buyer's persona with clear demographics of age, interests, location, behavior, buying power, family structure and more. Identify your customer's pain points and provide solutions to them. This can be done easily by taking using the built-in CRM and Loyalty program of Grocery POS software like QueueBuster. You can even create a point-based loyalty program without any additional app, equipment or fees!

2. Enhance the store's visual feel.

Supermarkets must turn into experiential destinations for shoppers to keep returning. Provide a premium multi-sensory experience. The look and feel of the store should be just right. Store and displays should be lit up beautifully with bright LED lights. Store layout can bring certain categories of products together to tap into a popular trend. In-store dining allows the customer to spend more time inside.

3. Experiment with Tap Technology.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a milestone in digitizing retail business. Technology in stores has now gone beyond registering on Google My Business. Successful stores (like Decathalon) are using sensors and scanners to let customers checkout and complete their payments. They even use the customer data from their POS software and recommend products depending on purchasing habits. The built-in features of QueueBuster like Quick Bill, eStore/ online Dukaan and Inventory Management, let retailers do these digitally, without a single salesperson involved in the process.

4. Adopt Omni-channel Sales.

According to a survey by Cardilytics, customers that engage in omnichannel behavior typically spend between 2 and 2.5 times more than regular customers.

These days, sales depend on customer experience rather than in-store foot count. Connect with customers through the physical and digital worlds and complete the shopping experience. All this is possible with friendly POS software like QueueBuster which provides marketplace integrations, e-stores, and multi-channel payment options backed up with real-time inventory management.

You can start implementing the following omnichannel approaches quickly:

Implement click and collect. QB helps you do this with a single click through its eStore/ Online Dukaan feature. You can set up an online store instantly with no additional investment.

Start Mobile ordering. QBuster makes this way through its QR code technology. Simply share your store's QR code with your customers and accept online orders. You can even accept COD payments.

5. Track Your Inventory Efficiently.

Customers will move to a competitor fast if some products are not available at the store or are found to be out-of-stock. Supermarkets need to up their inventory management game. Nowadays, Grocery billing software like QBuster automates your inventory operations. It sends a notification if an item is out of stock. Studies show that if your inventory is taken regularly and accurately, your operation profits can maximize by up to 26%.

6. Provide home delivery if you are not already doing it.

These days, providing home delivery does not need to be a significant expense. Partner with a delivery service such as Uber Eats, GrubHub, or Postmates, which will handle the logistics of delivery in exchange for a fee. Or use a curbside pickup system where the customers can place their orders online and pick them up at the pickup without entering the store. The Online Dukaan/eStore, Quick Billing and Payments feature of QB lets retailers seamlessly start home delivery.

7. Introduce a Customer Loyalty Rewards Program.

According to a survey, 84% of customers are likely to stay with a brand that offers a loyalty program. A loyalty program can be as simple as adding loyalty points to the customer’s account after he/she purchases at your supermarket, which can further be redeemed on their next purchases. QBuster allows you to centrally manage your customers from all store locations. You can set up a loyalty program by defining both purchase-to-points and points-to-purchase conversions. These configured points can then be used as payments or discounts.

8. Socialize with your customers.

Invest your money and time in digital marketing. Use social media, SMSs and Whatsapp messages to roll out sales offers and promotional deals. QBuster has a built-in CRM that can capture and update customer information in real-time. This can be tied up with the website and app analytics to personalize your communication and recommendations.

9. Automate your Supermarket Operations

Many retail businesses are still old-school and time-consuming, and laden with errors if technology is not used appropriately. The next logical step to increase sales should be to invest in POS Software, like QB, that digitalizes invoicing, payments, inventory management, billing and much more.

10. Educate the Sales team to be customer-centric

The sales associates should establish a rapport with their customers, understand their requirements and suggest options that add value. They should not only be well-informed about all products in the store but also follow a customer-first approach. You can train in-house to save money, but it’s also a good idea to have a budget in place for external training opportunities. A bonus will be to equip them with modern technology like the QueueBuster POS Software to make personalized buying recommendations to your shoppers.

Retail business is complicated with evergrowing competition and errors due to outdated manual business models. But POS technology has made significant strides in improving buyer behavior and, ultimately the customer experience. Modern cloud-based POS software like QBuster is the One App for all your business needs like Billing, Inventory management, Digital Ledger, CRM & Loyalty programs.