Benefits of going organic
People nowadays are more and more concerned about what they are eating especially post COVID-19. Choosing certified organic foods provides us with holistic benefits and it is also good for the environment. Furthermore, going organic helps you, your health, the health of your children, and the planet.
Organic crops are grown without the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers, or even bioengineered genes (GMOs). On the other hand, livestock that is termed as organic is raised in living conditions accommodating their natural behaviors such as the ability to graze on pasture in addition to given organic feed and forage. In fact, they are mainly raised for meat, eggs, and dairy products, and also they are not administered with antibiotics, growth hormones, or any animal by-products. As a result, the end products we get from them do not contain any chemicals.
The global sales of organic food have increased between 2000 and 2019. In 2019, sales of organic food amounted to 106 billion U.S. dollars, up from nearly 18 billion dollars in 2000.
Defining Mission, Vision, and Values for Your Organic Store
It is more convenient to shop for organic groceries online without looking for a parking spot, for items from a shopping list, or stand in long queues to pay for items.
Due to this, formulating a clear mission, vision and values are very important for online organic stores. Equally important is aligning your goals and marketing strategies with these so that it will make it easier for our business to achieve them. For example, we have shown below a sample formulation for an organic grocery store in general.
Vision
- With environmental protection deeply ingrained in our values our vision is to provide true wellness for the environment and society.
Mission
- To provide genuine organic products and kitchen tools sourced from farmers and tribal artisans across the country.
Values
- Integrity
- Quality
- Sustainability
- Giving back to nature
Our Commitment
- First: Selling genuine organic products and traditional kitchen tools
- Second: Is to strive to meet high-quality standards
- Finally: Supporting rural farmers who practice organic agricultural practices
Formulating Goals for Organic Store
Short-term goals
Short-term goals are measurable and have achievable milestones that can act as a guideline to our growth strategy. Also, as the name specifies these are formulated to be fulfilled in a certain shorter amount of time. For instance, we have given a set of short-term goals as below,
- Creating a very good online platform (website & app) with a customer dashboard
- Finding and sourcing genuine organic groceries and quality kitchen tools from farmers and artisans
- Creating a plan for storage and delivery of items
- Implementing digital marketing strategies to increase website traffic
Long-term goals
Long-term goals are bigger goals that are achieved subsequently over a longer time period and can be broken down into several short-term goals as outlined previously. For example, some long-term goals are as below
- To maintain high-quality standards
- Creating a brand identity for our start-up
- Providing exceptional delivery solutions
Knowing the competition for Your Organic Store
Knowing your competition is an important aspect of digital strategic management. Not only it helps businesses to measure their performance against rivals but also to make effective future strategies.
Accordingly, there are two ways we can work upon meeting and beating the competition. First is by identifying business gaps and differentiating product offering and second is by identifying strengths and weaknesses compared to competitors.
Finally, competitor research can be time-consuming, but the more exhaustive your research, the more powerful the results will be for your growth.
Target Customers for Organic Grocery Store
Identifying your target customers does not happen overnight. Every time you launch a new marketing campaign, you will need to evaluate which group of consumers are to benefit from that. Moreover, whenever you introduce a new product, you will need to identify who will want the new offering.
Stay Focused on Your Digital Marketing
An important aspect of staying ahead in competition is to provide chat and phone support to clear customers’ doubts and also helping them when needed. Equally important is maintaining the social media pages for the online organic store in order to track reviews and also to have direct customer contact.
Make customers engaged in your website
Customers spend more time on your online grocery website only when you provide an exceptional customer experience. This can be achieved by:
- Checking up on the customers from time to time.
- Ensure that all items you are selling are sorted in their appropriate categories or sub-categories.
- Grouping items of the same variety can help customers with their choices.
- Provide search bars for customers to find their essential items easier.
Social Media Marketing for Organic Grocery Store
Online grocery stores can build their presence on numerous social media platforms, including:
Different platforms can be used for defining buyer personas. So, you may use Facebook to target your middle-aged shoppers, while you rely on Instagram to attract millennials.
Content Marketing for Organic Grocery Store
Write Blog Posts That Focus on Your Target Audience
Writing engaging blog posts that customers will find valuable means consuming more from the website and also incorporating it into their daily lives. As a result, you will find customers building brand loyalty.
Visuals that are out-of-the-world
Great eye-catchy images are an excellent way of communicating with your customer. Not only that good visuals stimulate the interest of customers but also can make them more likely to place an order through your website
Including Organic Recipes
When you include great recipes ideas on your website with organic ingredients you sell, It not only creates awareness on healthy cooking but also makes people buy the ingredients you sell. Moreover, It can attract a lot of customers to your website.
Search engine optimization
A proper SEO strategy helps your website to be ranked higher in google search
Below are steps that need to be followed for SEO,
- Doing proper research on keywords that needs to be used for search engines to find your website
- Creating mobile-friendly website
- Having hyperlinks for your content
- Social media integration
- Including meta title and description
- Enabling live chat option
In addition to driving more traffic to your online store, SEO can help keep users on your site for a longer period of time, and also decrease the bounce rate of your pages.
Conclusion
We understand that opening a fresh organic grocery store online may instill some apprehensions in you as an owner about whether you will be able to beat the competition. Also, it is natural for any new online grocery start-up business to feel that way. Again, the online grocery business does involve risk-taking but with the correct application of all digital marketing strategies, your business will stay ahead in the competition. Finally, when you start maintaining your commitment to providing your business goals your store gets a brand identity and customers who are loyal, besides taking your business to new heights.
International Institute of Digital Marketing ™ is a certifying body founded in the USA by several long-standing marketers. They offer various courses in digital marketing under the trademark, International Institute of Digital Marketing ™ Learning Leaf, besides providing, a platform, ScrumStubs in order to facilitate workshops, meetups, conferences, and coaching in the world of IT training.
About
Meena Perumal is the Digital Marketing Analyst at International Institute of Digital Marketing™. She has held Senior business and data analyst positions and loves to travel