Bowden grocery by gmuske

It’s a growing trend. Online stores selling to your consumers. And the trend is growing.

Currently books, electronics, clothing, etc. are the more popular items being sold. But the available categories are expanding rapidly.

One of the growing categories is online grocery sales. This took the front page when Amazon purchased Whole Foods. But the trend was already on its way even before.

Today I read an article connecting online grocery sales heading in another direction – home delivery.  It is not only home delivery but same-day delivery. As the article notes, groceries are second in terms of the most quickly wanted products following restaurant orders.

So what might this mean for rural grocers? It can go three ways.

Perhaps it would have little or no impact. But probably not.

I suspect it will, or already does, impact your bottom line. Across the country, I have rural state friends who indicate they routinely buy grocery items as well as other items you find in those stores. What a dismal outlook.

Yet, there is a third thought. How many of you see it as an opportunity?

I do for several reasons.

First, in earlier ecommerce grocery efforts, deliver costs were high. Yet, your stores operate in small communities meaning you are close to the customer. You can do deliveries. And keep your deliver costs lower. What does it cost to ship a can of fruit from Minneapolis or California as opposed to going only 10 blocks or 10 miles.

Second, as noted, people want grocery items quickly. Again, you live in the community giving you a substantial head start. In all likelihood, you will start the business offering the items you normally carry. You could have the products in the customer’s home before that online competitor gets an order to its warehouse.

Third, you might build on another fast growing trend, the “meal in a box” idea with all the ingredients and the recipe to make it. This would be a little more trouble to put together but you may have an audience that would appreciate the time you save them. Some frozen steaks, a couple of potatoes and a bag of salad could be one and you might just offer a ballpark special – hot dogs, buns, beans, potato chips and lemonade. It’s corny but if it saves a run to the store, why not. (Just check with health department regulations first).

The fourth idea builds on #3 by connecting with local foods. Maybe your deliver point is from your own booth at the farmer’s market. Based on what the vendors will have any week, offer a recipe and the items need to complete it along with some fresh and local products. Or taking this idea in a slightly different direction, connect with your local CSA (community supported ag) producers. As they provide their box of produce, you offer that box of “fixins” in order to build the rest of the meal or meals.

Finally, use the delivery idea to respond to people work out of town or work during the hours you store is normally open. Let them place their order and then make deliveries during

Photo (CC) by Fabian Ortiz, on Flickr

the evening or other times they might be home. Volunteers or a high school student could make several deliveries in a couple of hours. And it can all happen when your store is technically closed. One thing to remember though, you don’t need to do this for nothing. Taking a line from Field of Dreams, “people will pay” for this kind of service.

Actually, none of these ideas have to be done for free. A small charge will not keep everyone away. It will stop some, but if you do it well, people will be your best ambassadors in getting other people to try it.

So face the challenge. Look at online sales and delivery as an opportunity. Make your rural grocery the electronic commerce center on the prairie.

Photo (CC) by SEO, on Flickr

You are new in town. How do you find your service professionals? This includes everyone from your doctor and dentist to your plumber and electrician.

Once upon a time, we would ask the people we work with and our neighbors and friends. Today we go online.

At this point, I suspect some of you are telling me “STOP”. You may go online for a plumber but not for your medical professionals.

I might have agreed with you until I my recent requests from my dentist and doctor/clinic asking me do complete an online review. That made me curious. So I asked around and checked online. According to the AMA, 35% of us select a doctor based on his or her online reviews. And 27% of us will also reject one because of negative reviews.

Searching online brought numerous articles on how to respond to negative reviews.

Okay, so I am behind the times. The bottom line is that online reviews today constitute the first, and maybe only, source of information that someone might use when checking out your small business. If you don’t make the cut there, you aren’t on the short list of your potential customer.

Build your online reviews by:

• Ask your customers to fill them out.
• Tell customers where your online reviews are.
• Respond to the reviews. Thank those who leave positive comments, consider suggestions, and engage with those who have offer a negative review. Fix their issue if you can.
• Do it quickly, within 24 hours is best.

You have heard me talk about this before, “Your Business Needs to be Online” and “Don’t be the Best-kept Secret.” And you will hear me say it again I am sure. I’ll stop when all small businesses are online.

Survival today demands an online presence and your online reviews are part of the presence.

Photo (CC 2.0) by USDA, on Flickr

How do your customers feel about the opportunity to access your company online?

This may be to find information, search for products or services, make a purchase, ask a question, discuss a problem, find more information, get store hours, or determine where you are located.

Have you ever thought about this question? Or perhaps you don’t have an online presence so you don’t feel there is a need to ask your customer?

This should be a key question as you work to understand your customer. Just recently a report was issued that suggested the buyers of 70 to 80 percent of purchases at some point used an online resource in the search and purchasing process. And with the rapid growth of mobile devices, this trend will just expand.

My interest in this topic came to the forefront when I tried to contact a local store of a major chain to ask why they no longer carried a favorite product.  Yes, I could have talked to someone in the store but never got the right person (but that’s another issue). When online though, I found that all questions were directed to the corporate headquarters. I suspected my question was now entering a black hole. (It’s been a week and I haven’t heard anything.)

So I did my own market research. I asked a dozen friends/colleagues (most lived in other places in the US) about their online experience over 2015. This is what I heard:

• Everyone had tried to locate or contact a local company using an online service or went online to look at products and services available. On average, they did this weekly or even daily.
• Based on their recall, 50 percent of the stores responded to a comment or question in 1-2 days. Only about 10% responded in 8 hours or less (Sometimes they got an automatic response saying that someone would bet back to them. Generally the feeling was that really didn’t count as a response). About 25% of the companies took more than a week or never responded.
• Some of the time, a first and second message were returned fairly quickly but if it was a more complicated issue response time grew as the conversation continued.
• Several comments were made about the difficulty in finding where to even make contact. A couple even mentioned that not only was their no online contact information provided but neither was a phone number and, in a couple of cases, there wasn’t even an address.
• Not all of the business map locations were correct. Several small business owners had not claimed their business (Don’t know what that is – Search for “Claim your business”).
• I didn’t ask but a couple of comments were made about websites that were not mobile-friendly.  This made it difficult to find the information they wanted or to even fill in a form for more information.

While the overall feeling was that things were getting better, the people I talked with said they also have lowered their expectations over time.

My little study has no scientific rigor. It’s not necessarily valid or reliable. However it begins to tell a story.  

You can do the same thing when talking with your customers. Ask them if they have ever tried to connect with your store online. If you don’t have an online presence, ask if they have ever posted a review about your business in a third-party online review site. Ask them about their experience contacting other stores. These are simple questions. They don’t take a lot of time to ask or answer but they may tell you a story about your business.

Think about the answers I received. What’s the story about your business? Is a response in 8 hours acceptable? What if I am simply asking what your store hours are?  I probably am looking to head out now to buy something so you don’t even make my list of places to go.

Today’s customer is online to compare, shop, buy, resolve an issue, find store hours, etc. They are doing this while 100 miles away, down the block, and even standing in your aisle.

Are you meeting your customers’ online expectations?