Using Mobile Technology To Market Indian Groceries

Apna Bazaar is an established grocery store in the Bellevue neighborhood. It carries a large variety of spices, lentils, general grocery items, fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen meals and many other items that typically cater to the needs of South Asian, specifically customers from Indian and Pakistani origin.

This store competes with a variety of other similar grocery stores, the most popular of these is the Mayuri store in Redmond. Mayuri offers additional items such as snack items (through its bakery and snack shop) and a full menu Indian resturant close to its grocery and snack shop.

Since Apna Bazaar's typical customers are working professionals, they prefer to have a quick and convenient shopping experience and spend as little time as possible within the store. Following mobile technology inclusions will help Apna Bazaar be able to serve its customers better.

Smatphone App

Apna Bazaar should invest in creating an app for Apple, Android and Windows Phone markets that allow users to check if an item is in stock. The app also lets users store a list of their favorite items in a quick list. This will help customers quickly check to see if a specific item they are interested in purchasing is available before coming into the store. Providing the capability for users to save a list of items will help them speed up the search since most people buy a set list of grocery items each week. None of the competitors offer such functionality today.

QR Codes

Apna Bazaar should incorporate QR codes (along with the shelf tags) for its most popular products. QR codes could be used to provide information such as ingredients, allergy information, popular recipes and other useful information. Another possibility is to partner up with a popular cooking site such as SanjeevKapoor.com to redirect customers to information for specific products to this site.

Mobile Coupons

Apna Bazaar's core business success depends heavily on delivering the best shopping experience compared to its competitors. Customers always look for the best value deals and coupons is a great way to influence their shopping decision. In most cases, printed coupons are ineffective since they get left in the home or car when customers come out to the store. Having the coupons delivered to a mobile device would help retain the customers better. A partnership with an existing site such as mobilecoupons.com could make this an easy integration into the current business.