How to Start a Supermarket Successfully in India?
Looking to start a small-scale business with a decent number of customers that guarantees good profits? Hurry, then!!! A grocery store or an Indian supermarket is the perfect time to start.
In India, with the population growing, the population’s buying power is also increasing. A convenience store will be a small business idea to make good use of the current market situation.
Here’s a list of what must be checked to start a Supermarket:
It takes planning, resources, and business skills to start any business. If you want a lot of items to be sold under one roof, then you should consider starting your own supermarket business. In today’s retail field, supermarkets, grocery stores, or convenience stores are common and evolving business concepts. Depending on the capital expenditure and financing, these business ideas can also be initiated on a small and large scale.
The good thing about starting a supermarket/grocery store is that you can easily leave the franchise to investors if you are successful in brand building, which brings lucrative returns in return.
How To Start A Supermarket In India?
An entrepreneur must perform a little research, check the market, and learn the fundamentals of how to start a grocery store in India before starting the grocery store. In order to make it stand out from other grocery stores and to build a target consumer base due to the items displayed, entrepreneurs will decide on the niche products they want to hold in the grocery store.
Business owners should consider selling goods directly from the manufacturers that are new and sourced. For example, a grocery store in Maharashtra can store loncha, thalipeeth bhajani, shengdana chatni, and similar things that are indigenous to the people and the area. Alternatively, grocery store owners can store ethnic goods. Also, home-made food such as theplas or dhokla or pre-made food items such as sauces, broths, soup mixes, etc. can be specialized in the grocery store or even frozen foods such as fries, peas, wedges, spring rolls, kababs, corn, etc. Even organic food products or even gluten-free foods and vegan food products that are otherwise difficult to access can be specialized in the grocery store.
There is a range of niche product markets that grocery store owners can specialize in, but when starting a grocery store, there are some basic elements that they need to remember.
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Essentials to remember when opening a Supermarket
While getting to know how to start a grocery store in India, business owners need to know certain crucial points to make the process simple and free of glitches and obstacles.
1. Plan The Business
When beginning any business, including a grocery store, a crucial aspect to remember is to have a business plan in place before actually starting the store. The business plan is like a road map that illustrates the exact nature of the organization and lists the business’s priorities, goals, and vision, along with the strategies to be pursued by the business owner in order to accomplish the designated aim of the business. The business plan needs to be carefully and meticulously designed to ensure that it covers all the business’s information, including the investment necessary for the business, ways of raising the capital needed, and potential business plans. The corporate structure or organization agreed for the business must also be carefully decided and specified in the business plan.
2. Select A Suitable Location
Location is important, particularly in the case of retail companies like the grocery store. When selecting the place for the business, there are few criteria to bear in mind, some of which are-
- Centrally positioned, due to the prime location, the store must be located centrally so that it experiences massive footfalls.
- The easily accessible-a grocery store is not that easily accessible on the first or upper floors of a building and this will work against it. The store must be readily accessible to customers and must also be linked and accessible via different modes of transport.
- Closer to people, in a suburban area or a location where the majority of customers are focused, the grocery store must be located. Proximity to the consumers lets the company prosper efficiently.
The cost of the place must also be taken into account when finding a shopping room to open the grocery store. Entrepreneurs can buy the storeroom for the grocery store if financial conditions are favorable, otherwise leasing or renting the space is a more economically viable option. Entrepreneurs must ensure that a lease agreement with all the details and conditions stated in it is drawn up.
3. Promote The Business
A grocery store is a lucrative business idea that offers important items that consumers can not do without, but it is not innovative or revolutionary to the definition of a grocery store. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to think about ways to be distinct from the market and stand apart when thinking about how to start a grocery store. To this end, the grocery store will specialize in niche markets such as vegan food goods or pre-made or ethnic products, thus creating an enviable market place for itself.
In addition, by employing smart marketing strategies such as offering enticing offers such as combo deals, gift vouchers, sponsoring events, flyer ads, newspaper advertising, digital marketing, and numerous other word spreading techniques, entrepreneurs can advertise about the company.
4. Obtaining licenses and registrations
The most important move when beginning a grocery store is to obtain licenses. It takes a few permits and registrations to start and operate a grocery store in India. It is not as hard as it seems to get a Kirana store license. Because most of these are mandatory, it has been made a simple process to obtain them, once the process and the documentation needed are known.
- Shop Act
- A retail business such as a grocery store requires registration under the Shop Act. The Shop Act is intended to govern the payment of the people employed in the grocery store of wages, hours of work, leave, vacations, terms of service, and other working conditions. The Shop Act is a compulsory registration and this document must be shown in a prominent position in the grocery store premises.
- It is easy to follow the Shop Act documents and procedure, and the application can be done online.
2. GST Registration
- Like any other business, the grocery business is expected to pay tax and, since it deals with the selling of products, it needs to register itself under GST for that. GST stands for Goods and Service Tax and is a uniform tax system that is the same across the country for business. Any grocery store owner will obtain a GSTIN, a 15-digit code that is a special GST identification number, upon registration.
- The GST registration is often carried out electronically and is a process that is easy to understand if all the records are kept handy.
A corporate entity registration as deemed necessary by the business owner, whether a sole proprietorship or a corporation or a one-person business or even a limited liability partnership, includes other registrations and licenses that a grocery store needs before opening. The entrepreneur can also apply for a Udyog Aadhaar registration along with business structure registration, which is a special identification for small and medium-sized enterprises.
5. Perform your feasibility studies
If you want to start a supermarket that will gather daily footfalls, then you need to carry out some studies to allow you to know the best location to start your supermarket, the items that the community needs, and also look at some variables to help you prepare and achieve your business goals.
6. Source for commodities and suppliers
You would need to source goods from wholesale distributors and manufacturers. The positive thing about the retail industry is that if you stock varieties in your supermarket, you can provide your customers with more options.
You need to be sure, therefore, that you don’t have just a single product brand. It will pay to create a direct relationship with the suppliers of the goods with which you want to stock your supermarket/ grocery store.
Importance of a business plan for a supermarket business
Before they develop themselves in the desired market, all companies would need a well-written strategy.
For a business to have an impact on the market, a lot of preparation takes place, retail sector is a particular form of the company where in-depth planning is required. The strategy would cover all the costs needed to execute the acts and how to gain money from them. They determine how to market their business with these strategies to obtain money for the production carried out. Similarly, it is an ordeal to start from a store, and for this as well, a proper plan must be made for the overall functioning of the same. They also use expenses that they need to advertise to attract more clients, and for that, the cafes are using unique food competitions these days or setting up a stall in a food show. They will need funds and a strategy for these operations that will then lead them to a proper revenue benefit that they invested when setting up the supermarket structure and functions.
It can also be summarized that without the proper preparation and a well-documented business plan that forms the foundation stone for any new beginning, no organization can begin.
