How Can Supermarkets Truly Differentiate?

The supermarkets are one stop shop for the customers. It has a range of products from a small needle to the basic necessities like food, clothes, utensils, etc. It has an added advantage for both customer and the supermarkets. A customer gets all products whatever is needed and on the other hand if the customer has come to buy one thing but looking to wide range of product he would buy few more things even if he has'nt come to buy that. SO indirectly this is beneficial for the supermarket too increasing its sales.

So one stop shop idea like BigBazar, Reliance Retail, etc would grow in India as time goes, as more people are moving towards the urban area.

Differentiating with two competition 1) Competions with similar retailer 2) With Local Kirana Stores

According to me,I believe Supermarket means higher & bigger Volume + Varieties than from normal General department stores. But unfortunately,What I had aboserved that Hypermarket format is being squeezed into Supermarket format in Indian Market.Where you've everthing but not upto the mark.

My experience says that SIZE doesn't matter  but the SERVICE.Every retailers have similar products but with different packing and services.As Shailena have said 'opening new store in different location',but that doesn't suffice the purpose,becuase its increase the company fixed and variable cost. To support these store needs proper warehouses to support with extra cost burden.Whereas, retailers works on very thin Margin and there profitabilty decrease.I'm sharing you practical example,which had been suffered by nos. of company like: SPENCER"S,Reliance retail,Subhiksha,Apple's store,9Eleven etc..

My guts feels say that,any supermarket can do excel if they work on these two:

1) Credit Facility: They should allow the customers to purchase goods & products from their store on Credit for 1-2 months.They should atleast make some mechanisam to strengthen themselves and come to the same platform where General Kirana Stores are working.All Kirana store works on Credit Sytem which No retailer have done till now,as per my knowledge.Moreover,this faciltiies should be available on all store.(Something like Credit Card Sytem).

2) Home Delivery: Stronger Supply chain  and in-house delivery system can be work like magic for any supermarketeer's.Direct marketing companies like: Avon Beauty,Amway,Tupperware etc. did work on home delivery system and they are doing good,better day by day.This is also one of the best model were Local Kirana store play extra mileage from any supermarket retailer.

regards........Rajeev Jha

Supermarkets must manage to meet a family's daily needs and draw up contracts accordingly. If I need to buy say 5,000 rupees of grocery every month, offer to manage my inventory levels and that too just in time and fresh deliveries. Offer that to keep it below 4,500. Dirct savings due to optimization of needs, reduced wastage.

Apart from this, They should offer to pay the electricity bills, water bills, telephone bills, credit card payments, school fees and other monthly services which have last date(s). This can be done at actuals + a surcharge of say .1% or so. All these things can be electronically linked so that I will make just one single payment at the end of month.

If possible, offer additional home maintenance services like arranging (only) cabs, plumbers, mechanics, tution teachers, movie tickets, travel tickets, picnics, catering contracts etc.

They can - health & hygiene, variety pricing & quality, target market segmentation , innovation etc

convenience,Home delivery

I think, Supermarkets should focus on convenience of the customers where large supermarket chains should open up smaller stores in specific locations, stocking them with basic needs and ready-to-eat meals. So that there is no need to travel out of the way to pick up a few items. Extra services like in-store baby-sitting should be done to make it quick and easy for consumers to shop. They should also cater to minority purchasing power.i.e, In areas where ethnic minorities live, smaller locations should cater their product mix and meal offerings to meet their needs.

I’d love to hear from you.....

Quality and Cost will be main criteria for differentiation.

Atul