How to Make Money with a Grocery Delivery Business

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By Limowreck
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Article Rating: (12 Ratings)

Make Money and Help Your Community

Looking to start a business with great potential to make money? Grocery shopping and grocery delivery businesses are booming. It's easy and profitable.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Vehicle
Phone
Ability to Handle Money
Ability to Socialize

Step 1

BUSINESS PLAN

This is always the hardest part for business starters. However, it's essential to have at least the basic concept of your business on paper. For a profitable grocery delivery service, make brief plan of what your company will do and how it will do it. List goals. There's also lots of great business planning software available to help.
Step 2

RESEARCH

Call your local business bureau to find out what licensing, if any, they require your business to have. Many states don't require anything more than registering for sales tax identification. Also call the agency that oversees tobacco and alcohol sales. These are popular items that will probably be requested by some of your customers. Many states have no special rules about delivering these items, but it's best to be sure.
Step 3

TARGET COMMUNITIES

To make money and cut gas expenses, first try targeting residential communities and complexes. Apartment communities for the elderly are fantastic because they minimize gas consumption and driving time. Also, because so many elderly people struggle with mobility and transportation, they are great potential customers.
Step 4

ADVERTISE

Get the word out about your business with flyers, mailers, or business cards. Include information about the service you are providing, the reasonable fee you offer, and the times your service is available to a given area. Post your advertisements in your target areas. Don't forget the important contact information. Also, talk to local organizations for the elderly. They know many seniors who would benefit from this service. Ask if you can leave flyers with their agency.
Step 5

ORGANIZE JOBS

Keep jobs organized by location and schedule your delivery time accordingly. You can make a great deal of money if you are able to minimize driving. Delivering to one customer at a time will waste your time and gas money.
Step 6

DELIVER

Now, the work begins. Once your customers have provided a list of groceries for you to purchase on their behalf, take the time to make sure you get exactly what they want. You will have to organize your purchases, money, and receipts also. Once you have purchased the items, deliver them to each customer with a smile. They're probably very happy to see you.
Step 7

EXPAND

Once you have mastered the art of professional grocery shopping and delivery, consider ways to expand your services. You can charge a fee to put groceries away for your customers. You can also look into prescription medication delivery. Think of ways your service can improve the quality of life for home-bound customers. You'll be making money and doing them a great service.

Comments

Limowreck said

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on 9/9/2009 Mike, you are correct that I have not opened this business personally. As a writer, I am not in a position to personally test every theory I write about. However, this article is not based on a 'guess', but on interviews with a local businesswoman who has made her own grocery delivery business a success. I have, however, been a take-out delivery driver. It is my experience that not only is the job growing more dangerous as the economy struggles, but it's also infinitely less rewarding than it once was.

mikehandy12 said

on 9/9/2009 Nice suggestions but I can almost guarantee the author is just guessing at the business model. I've opened up over 50 meal delivery businesses (delivering takeout orders) and we've tried grocery delivery (just like peapod and other giants with lots of money), but it's a losing battle. It's very time consuming doing the shopping, there's no way to keep up with inventory and accurate pricing, people only want you to pick up little things that they forgot, the delivery charge usually doesn't cover the expenses and the owner suffers a painful small business death. This is one of those "Good idea, not a good business model". The real money is delivering peoples takeout food. Charge them $5 for delivery and get a 25% commission from the restaurant. We average 50 orders per day at our locations and the owners make lots of money and have good quality of life. If you try this way, you'...