Complete Guide on How to Take Your Grocery Shop Online
What was the first thing you did when the lockdown was announced in your country? Hit your nearest superstore to purchase the daily necessities? Indeed! Whether you are a store owner or a web developer, it is time to take the grocery shops online to stop this deadly virus from spreading.
Why Launching an Online Grocery Shop Is an Effective Way to Fight Corona
First thing first, why a website? Getting your daily goods can be a real challenge during this pandemic. The fear of running into empty shelves at the supermarket or a cut in working hours for remote workers are taking a toll in people’s mind. A grocery delivery website can fight the COVID-19 by playing a role in:
- Social distancing
- Flattening the curve by breaking the coronavirus chain
- Helping the remote workers and people who do not have the luxury of time
- Helping the economy to keep going
Let’s have a look at how we can build our grocery delivery website with some minimum efforts.
How to Take Your Grocery Shop Online in 4 Easy Steps
Taking your grocery store online will require the following things:
- Choose your Content Management System platform
- Get the domain and hosting
- Pick the right grocery shop template
- Configure the eCommerce system
Why Joomla is the Perfect Platform to Create Grocery Shop Websites
Choosing the right CMS is crucial when it comes to website development. Joomla is always our first port of call because it is free, convenient to install & set up, and has a pretty short learning curve. What’s more? Joomla community is one of the biggest on the web with countless forums to get help from other Joomla users and developers. The cherry on top, our templates, layout bundles, and extensions will let you quickly build sites with a minimum amount of instructions!
You can find the basic guidelines to create a Joomla website HERE.
Get the Domain and Hosting
A domain name is the name of your website. In your case, it should be the name of the grocery store. You can easily get one from GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc. If you do not own a store yet and are just starting up, make sure to get a name that is brandable and easier to remember.
Even though web hosting is invisible to the customers, it plays a vital role in their experience. Longer load times can frustrate the customers and affect your chances of securing a sale. Based on your location, you can search for the web hosting services, but our general recommendations would be DigitalOcean, SiteGround, or HostGator.
Pick the Right Grocery Shop Template
Creating a website from scratch takes time, resources, and advanced coding skills. Not everyone who needs to build a website is proficient in these, and fewer have the budget to hire developers. But luckily templates exist to make our lives easier!
JoomShaper offers dedicated Joomla templates and layout bundle for grocery shops and any similar businesses. They are stacked with features that will make the development phase a piece of cake even for a complete novice. Let's have a look at them.
Arino
Arino is a robust eCommerce template for any online sellers, business owners, or retailers powered by J2Store - an eCommerce solution for Joomla. It comes with 5 homepage variations, and one of them is Organic. You can use the Organic home variation to build a full-fledged grocery website with extensive functionalities with minimum efforts.
Arino comes with all the latest elements like SP Page Builder Pro and Helix Ultimate. That’s why we strongly recommend you to use Arino!
Let’s have a look at some of the notable features of Arino:
- Fully-responsive design
- eCommerce powered by J2Store
- Impressive top slider with multiple interaction effects
- Trending item showcase for rapid conversion
- Brief introduction of the business to gain trust
- Instagram feed to embed a dynamic photo gallery
- Display eCommerce items with all required attributes
- Easy-to-use checkout
- Multiple payment options (Card, PayPal, etc.)
- Customer reviews on products
- Advanced product filtering
- Automated background color picker per product
- SP Page Builder Pro & Helix Ultimate
- eCommerce blog
We do not recommend installing Joomla and the template separately! Download the Arino QickStart pack from our website, and get your Joomla site running with the template in no time. See how to install a QuickStart pack here. You can also contact our support team or check the documentation for further assistance.
Configure the eCommerce System for Ordering
After the successful installation of the QuickStart pack of Arino, you need to configure your J2Store. Go to the administrator dashboard, click on Component, select J2Store and you will be presented with the J2Store Dashboard.
Configure your store name, location, and other information
From the Dashboard go to Setup and then Configuration to set your store name, address, and administrator email. You will also get tabs for Product, Tax, Cart, etc at the top from where you can customize the shop according to your needs.
Set up your payment and shipping methods
Similarly from the Setup, you can configure your payment methods, currencies, shipping methods, etc. to run your online grocery store without a hiccup. You can also upgrade your J2Store to J2Store Pro for advanced functionalities.
More Options
Even though we highly recommend using Arino for your online grocery store, you can still explore the following options to see if you like them more.
Organic Life was developed on top of the Helix II framework, and powered by HikaShop- an eCommerce solution for Joomla. The Helix II framework is a bit outdated but if you like the outlook and functionalities of the template, you can give it a try. Some of the notable features of Organic Life include friendly customer signup/login form, shopping cart, easy-to-use checkout, multiple payment options (Card, PayPal, etc.), feature best selling products or new arrivals, etc.
If you do not want to use a QuickStart pack or want to build a site specifically for a farm, dairy, or any other agricultural businesses, you can go for this one. The beautiful layout bundle comes with vibrant pages and interactive effects to ensure you get an impressive online presence. There’s also a 3D Tilt effect to make your products more interactive to users when they hover on any item. Please note, if you use a layout bundle, you will need to integrate an eCommerce system for getting the eCommerce store functionalities.
Optimize the Website to Cater to the Needs of Locales
Optimizing the content and value in what you offer is important in every step of the shoppers’ purchase journey. Due to high demand, many online grocery delivery systems are unable to deliver goods on time. To avoid such situations, you can only cater to your nearest areas to keep the delivery process smooth and easy.
Here are some of the tips to boost your sales:
- Offer free delivery
- Attentive and friendly service
- Offer a money-back/replacement guarantee in case of faulty products
- Take necessary safety precautions while delivering products
- Be honest in your sales copy
- Display customer reviews to gain the trust of consumers
Final Thoughts
We can collectively save the world from the comfort of our home just by making the best use of the available resources. To get more information on how to launch any business website, visit HERE.
In the face of rapidly changing lifestyles and shopping habits, adding an online platform to your business is the way to go. Think no more, take the first step of launching your business online today! Let us know how you are adapting to the new normal in the comment section. Stay home, stay safe, and buy your groceries safely.
