Opening a grocery franchise is not that easy and requires a lot of homework. There are lots of things to consider before opening a grocery franchise to make sure it will work effectively. And the most important thing is to do proper market research before opening a grocery franchise, as it is half of the total base of a successful business.
Market research Before opening a grocery franchise is basically the process of collecting and examining all the information related to the market. To meet the higher demands of the customers, proper understanding of the target market, better offerings to your supermarket, and analysing everything about this industry is a must to run a grocery market efficiently. And doing market research before opening a grocery franchise is the most valid and accurate way to do so.
A detailed market research can help you to comprehend the significant information about customer tendencies and purchasing habits, that is must to open a grocery store. So, in order to help you stand strong in this industry, we have brought up some strategies for you that will help you to perform market research before opening a grocery franchise.
The Benefits Of Doing Market Research Before Opening Grocery Franchise
As we have mentioned earlier, market research for grocery franchises illustrates the process of compiling, analysing, and cracking the information so that you can better understand the grocery market. There are several benefits of doing Grocery market research, such as;
- To help you in specifying the customer attributes through market features and to explore consumer behaviours during their digital affairs.
- Market research can help you to analyse how competitive it is in your sector to open a grocery store.
- To explore the recent trends and enlargement opportunities for your groceries store.
- To know the current demand of the customers for new derivatives, services, and experiences.
- Market research can help you to prevent expensive testing methods as it can already be done by the franchisor.
If you collect all the required data about the grocery market, it will be helpful for you to make fairer and quick decisions to straighten up your business. Although there is an innate risk in opening a grocery franchise, a proper market research can assure you about the modifications you need to bring in.
Major Types Of Market Research To Open A Grocery Franchise
Market research is a key factor to open a successful grocery franchise store, no matter if you are opening it for the first time or having an experience. Market research has to do with basically two types of information; primary research and secondary research.
- Primary research: Primary research contains highly detailed information that still needs to be collected, and which can be done and analysed by the grocery franchise owner. It includes a survey research, interviews, emphasis gatherings, observation studies, and through the users who are more suitable for online grocers.
- Secondary research: Secondary research pertains to the accumulation and calculation of the existing information that is publicly functional. The secondary include, a complete market research reports, industry reports, government statistic sites, research companies, SEO platforms, and Google Trends.
If both of these sets of information have been collected, then you will have to organize and analyse the information to get to the judgments that are appropriate to your grocery franchise.
Important Points To Consider For Performing Grocery Market Research
To perform grocery market research, it is very important to follow a proper process with a well-planned strategy. Understanding some unique considerations of the industry will help you to better accumulate your research. Also, pre-analysis of where you should conduct research work will help you to achieve your goal more effectively. However, here is a list of some important approaches that you must consider for performing market research before opening a grocery franchise:
- Identify the competition: Knowing the level of competition is the most important thing before opening any business, and the grocery market is no different. So focus on identifying the market competition for effective grocery market research. You should understand how many competitors are there in the market and what are they doing, as it will help you to offer a varied experience for the customers. You can use secondary research methods to better understand the market competition.
- Identify the target market: The most important thing for effective market research is to identify the target market, which includes finding out the potential customers. You should look out for such locations where more people live around, as most people prefer to buy from nearby stores. Also, you should consider the preferences, needs, and aversions of customers in the surrounding zones to better understand their unique needs and spending patterns. Moreover, the more customers you will have, the more your business will grow. Thus, surveying qualitative and quantitative research will help you identify the target market.
- Understanding the customers’ behaviours: Another important thing for effective market research is to understand the behaviour of the target market. You should understand the preferences and spending habits of your customers. Understanding their behaviours will help to create more relevant and targeted marketing campaigns.
- Outline some unique value propositions: You can grow your business even in a competitive market by outlining some unique value propositions. You can differentiate yourself by offering extra benefits for the customers that other competitors do not. For example, you can offer delivery services for local customers or can offer some unique products to increase your sales. So you should plan at least one unique way to attract more and more customers in the competitive market.
- Interpret saturation and consumption: Interpreting saturation and consumption of goods is also a must for grocery market research. Proper examination of employment statistics and spending statistics will help to evaluate the market saturation and demand for the grocery store. Moreover, the ultimate goal is to determine the niche with high demand and to check whether the market is saturated.
Moreover, keeping these points in your market research before opening a grocery franchise will help you to have a clear idea of how to meet the demand of the target market.
Also Read: Complete Guide to Launch Grocery Franchise in India
Top 3 Options For Grocery Market Research
There are various options available for grocery market research that will help you to collect consumer feedback and better marketing strategies. Here we have some of the best market research methods that will give you deep insights into opening a successful grocery store.
- Intercept Surveys method
An intercept survey is a classical marketing research method that helps to collect data more effectively. Intercept survey refers to in-person research where an interviewer interacts with random people and asks them some relevant questions to conduct a survey. For grocery market research, you can ask provincial buyers to participate in your survey and question them about different elements of their shopping experience. Moreover, intercept surveys are incredible for capturing target market feedback, as they offer accurate data about the customer experience.
- Shop-Alongs method
In the shop-along research method, shoppers are asked to make a series of instantaneous decisions during their grocery store trip. In the shop-along research method, an interviewer accompanies a particular buyer as they shop in the grocery store. It helps to understand the customer behaviors during their journey as how they select the product and what details they consider for shopping. So it will make it easy for you to analyze the shoppers’ pattern, making you able to construct more effective strategies for opening your grocery market store.
- Mobile Ethnography
If you have never conducted grocery market research in your entire life, then the mobile ethnography research method can be the best option for you. In the mobile ethnography method, research participants record their own experiences at a grocery store using their mobile devices and provide notes of them in the form of photos, videos, or text. Moreover, mobile ethnography is very useful to closely understand the shoppers’ inner dialogue as they select a particular store, choose products, and navigate their shopping. It enables you to get the most reliable insights into the grocery market industry.
Overall, these are some of the most useful options for conducting market research before opening a grocery franchise. It may seem quite common but they always provide effective and relevant data that help analyse the target market. So whenever you think of opening your grocery store, you should first conduct these market surveys to understand your business well.
Final Thought
A grocery franchise is indeed an ideal starting point for you, if you want to make a place in this industry as a well-established grocery supplier. With the expertise and backing of successful franchise owners, you can quickly assemble a successful grocery franchise. It will not only fulfil the demands of your society, but also will meet your individual and monetary intents. So, all the best for your new journey as an owner of a grocery franchise store. We are hoping that this information will help you to do a perfect market research before opening a grocery franchise.