Adjusting business strategies or developing new business plans must reflect the contemporary state of affairs especially, of the external environment. The term external environment encompasses a wide range of factors like consumer behaviour, competition, demand trends, and supply chain. The internal business ideas and functioning plans must then be aligned with these external variables for the best results. This blog revisits some of the important retail business fundamentals in light of contemporary requirements.
Location Strategy
Store location strategy plays a pivotal role in shaping the ease and speed with which customers can access a store. There are also psychological aspects involved when customers process their decision-making on whether to visit a store or not. As professionals who carry out supermarket locational analysis, YRC maintains that business owners should emphasise both navigational and psychological aspects in evaluating potential store locations. For example, accessibility via public transport is also an important consideration along with having sufficient parking space. One strong reason for this is the growing emphasis on the use of public transport for the everyday commute.
When it comes to identifying a suitable location, local business owners and entrepreneurs have an upper hand because of their default understanding of their home turfs. They also stand a better chance of finding good places with an edge on bargaining. This gives them a head start advantage in capturing business opportunities before any big or small competitor.
YRC stresses that in the grocery retailing business, the simple objective is to maintain proximity with target customer bases and provide them with quick and easy access to services.
Premium Environment and Visual Appeal
One thing which is becoming clear in the retail sector is that big brands and businesses are now stressing offering a premium and visually appealing shopping environment to their customers. They are doing it by factoring in aesthetics, ambience, cleanliness, customer orientation, strategic hiring and training, and technology. Even small supermarkets have realised the significance of using a variety of display shelves and racks for superior visual merchandising backed up with scientific reasons as well. With a long experience in delivering supermarket layout planning solutions, YRC emphasises that the types of display shelves and racks play a pivotal role in shaping visual appeal and optimising space in supermarkets.
Community Focus
Drawing parallels from global supermarket brands, in 2025, we can expect more supermarket businesses at local and regional levels to invest more in community services. Genuine and meaningful engagement in community services is a highly appreciated trait among organisations – both in the public and private sectors. Organisations or even individuals with access to resources are more capable as well as are expected to contribute to the welfare and development of local communities and address local issues. This involvement may vary depending upon the size and stature of business enterprises but each can play a part in relevant ways. Contribution can be in the form of forging business associations with local suppliers, providing employment to needy people (and providing them with necessary training), sponsoring local events, raising funds for causes, etc. Community focus need not be a separate activity but it can be aligned beautifully with business requirements (for example, providing suitable employment to differently-abled people).
Extended Value Propositions
More and more retailers around the world now realise that diversification is a smart and effective universal solution for a secure future. This applies to supermarket brands and businesses as well. One way supermarkets can diversify is by extending their value propositions. They can consider including additional elements like food service, ATM, EV charging (say on membership model), and courier services. These extended service elements lend flexibility to existing supermarket business models. Diversifying value propositions also creates additional avenues of revenue shielding businesses from market fluctuations and giving time for course correction. In other words, diversifying revenue sources also helps in diversifying risks. However, supermarket business owners should not forget that additions in value propositions must not lead to compromising with core offerings. In delivering supermarket business consulting services, YRC also maintains that high-quality market research is crucial before investing heavily in any diversification move.
Consistency and Uniformity in Brand Positioning
Renowned supermarket chains show outstanding standards in maintaining consistency and uniformity in brand positioning. This is something that has not gone unnoticed by industry experts as well as business owners over the years. We expect this observation to be more fiercely adopted by retailers in the coming years.
Brand positioning is reflected not only in advertising or promotions but also in numerous other aspects within and beyond the shopping journey of customers. It is advisable that supermarket businesses seek to maintain high levels of consistency and uniformity in the following areas across all stores all the time:
· Offerings/products
· Store layout and design
· Pricing approach
· Promotions
· Distribution/channels
· Digital marketing
· Brand communications
· Store operations
· Customer experience, shopping journeys, touchpoints
· Franchise management (e.g. by use of franchise SOP manuals)
· Supply chain management
· Staffing
· Use of technology
Localisation
The impact of localisation cannot be denied in the retail business space and businesses are only getting better at it. It is a tricky area of work and hence, competition on this parameter is also likely to remain less intense. The challenge in localisation is knowing what to do. It is easy to fall prey to generic and mediocre approaches. We can use inspiration from the global retail brand – 7-Eleven. The brand rightfully applies localisation in its food service department. The 7-Eleven customises its food service offerings based on regional tastes and preferences. Again, this is where having additional value propositions finds prominence.
About Your Retail Coach
YRC is a retail and eCommerce consulting brand with a scaling international footprint. With more than ten years in business, YRC has worked with over five hundred clients across 25+ industries with a success ratio of 95%.
To speak to a professional supermarket consultant in the Middle East, feel free to drop us a message and we will shortly reach out to you.