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 David Rickard, on Flicker

Does your business have a sustainable advantage?

Having one or more sustainable advantages gives you an edge in the marketplace.

Advantages can be developed in several ways. Perhaps the most commonly sought after advantage is price. However, a price advantage is rarely, if ever, sustainable. Another business will find a way to offer a lower price, even taking a loss sometimes on that one item. Our landscape is littered with businesses that relied on a price advantage.

Another means to gain the advantage is in the use of rare elements, talents or processes. The outside shell of your automobile is such an example. Companies gained an advantage in developing a special process for bending and molding sheet metal. Then aluminum came along followed by fiberglass and now we have plastics and carbon fiber. All of these initially required an expensive and somewhat unique process to form the body of a car. But over time, the process got cheaper and more companies decided to use it. And so the advantage was lost. Not only was the advantage lost but some companies got attached to the old way of doing things and got left behind.

Another advantage used by some companies is to hire the best personnel available. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. A management style that works at one business might not fit with another business. Also, there are always new people coming along looking to challenge what works. Plus new technologies and tools leave the old ideas behind.

Two more recent advantages companies have adopted are free shipping and overnight shipping. Again, these gave a temporary bump to a company but a scan of the marketplace finds they no longer make your company unique.

I recently heard about two more advantages that companies are trying. While they offer some temporary advantage, I suspect that neither will be sustainable.

The first was when United Airlines gave a $10,000 voucher for a customer who was booked on an over-sold flight. It was a satisfactory means of customer service perhaps but did they just set an impossible standard to maintain. Who made the call and will everyone be treated equally? Stay tuned to this one.

The other one, by Ace Hardware, says if you buy supplies from them for a painting project and then need something else or more of something, they will deliver it for free. How often I have needed more paint or tape or whatever in the middle of a job. Sounds like a good idea. Time will tell if this gives them an advantage and if it is sustainable. I suspect that the speed in which they can respond will make or break the idea. If I am in the middle of painting, I will want things quickly. And then there is the issue of sustainability? This could be something other businesses could easily duplicate.

As you think about sustainable advantages, there is one more thing to consider. As mentioned, sustainable implies a time horizon. My comments have looked at it over a long period of time. Perhaps though you only need it for a month or a year. Then sustainable is much easier to get and maintain. It also implies you are planning for what will your next advantage. You may decide to break a big change into several small changes each of which give you a new advantage.

Having an advantage makes your business memorable. Maintaining the advantage brings long term success.

Photo (CC) by Ron Mader, on Flickr

Small Business Saturday has come and gone.

What worked? What did you do? And what do you wish you would have done?

Now is the time to answer those questions. Yes, I know that for many of you it is also the holiday shopping season and you have just run the gauntlet of getting the decorations up, putting out the first sale flyers out and participating in Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And staring you in the face are the remaining 19 days until Christmas.

But it’s crucial to examined what worked and to keep doing it throughout the season (Actually, you want to keep doing it until Small Business Saturday 2018 when you can up your game even more).

2017 Small Business Saturday was bigger and better than ever. You can find lots of articles addressing the results. The National Retail Federation reported that 55 million shoppers visited small businesses that Saturday.

That was a look at the national scene. My colleagues, Tait and Kate, addressed why your success is so important at a more local level, your community, in “Small Towns and ‘Shop Local’ Do Matter.”

And we can take it down even further to your own store. A successful Small Business Saturday promotion meant money in the till. Just as important, though, it meant more awareness of your store, more foot traffic, and more coffee-time conversation about what you have going on.

Those last items are crucial for long-term sustainability and success.

Small Business Saturday

So ask yourself and your customers, what worked? Then do more of it.

It is much more effective if you continue something that worked then to let it sit for several months, or until next year, and try to resume the activity. Customers will remember know what you did and respond if you continue it.

So reboot your Small Business Saturday successes. Make them a regular part of your effort.

Photo (CC) by bark, on Flickr

Let’s start with two underlying truths.

First, you probably are near the point where your time is maxed out. It would be hard to add anything more and still manage to stay on top of everything at work and in your personal life.

Second, things change and there are always new opportunities and requirements coming at you in terms of running the business. Just look at some of my blog posts in the last 30 days – innovation, distinguish yourself, and tracking customer value. Each is a suggestion of something to try.

So how do you mesh these two truths that are each tugging in different directions?

Peter Drucker, management consultant and author, gave us an answer with his advice, “If you want to do something new, you have to stop doing something old.”

His statement acknowledges the fact that you just can’t keep adding new practices onto what you are already using. .

By practicing his advice, it forces you to ensure that your gain will be greater than your lose.

So often we get caught up in the new bright, shiny idea that we fail to look long term at what it might cost us. Yes, it’s great to be practicing the newest trend but does it really enhance your total return.

When considering the gain of doing something new in operating the business is no different then when consider adding a new product or service to your offerings. Does it strengthen your business position?

Staying abreast and taking advantage of new tools and techniques is necessary in building and sustaining your business. Just the time to do this though must be carved out of a busy day.

And if you wish to implement a new idea, you should think seriously about Drucker’s advice – if one thing comes in, another goes out.