The last decade has seen a significant surge in the popularity of micro markets in the unattended retail space. Operators across the country have learned of their money-making potential, and they have been putting them in five-star accounts to maximize their success. Nevertheless, a large number of the most obvious accounts are saturated and already served by unattended retail businesses.
Savvy operators need to look at smaller or unconventional accounts to grow their micro market business. With the right approach, these smaller accounts can bring huge potential. Here are four ways to profitably service smaller accounts:
1. Minimize your upfront cost
Minimizing costs is a great strategy for maximizing profits. Investing in a full-size micro market setup can get pricey as coolers, snack racks and product investments can add up quickly.
Luckily, setting up smaller accounts involves minimal upfront equipment. Depending on your location, you can potentially make do with one snack rack, one fridge and a smaller form kiosk. Often, these accounts have less strict requirements and compact kiosks like the MM6 Mini or PicoMarket can get the job done for less.
2. Use real-time data to become more efficient
In addition to reducing upfront costs, you can also cut down on service expenses. With high gas prices, increased labor costs and potentially distant accounts, the cost to serve a micro market can be high. Lowering your cost to serve can significantly boost your micro market profits. For example, you can see live product inventories which means you only need to stock your account when it needs it – eliminating unnecessary services. Plus, a VMS helps you leverage tools for warehouse management, product spoilage, routing, and much more. By minimizing your cost to serve, you can maximize your profits.
3. Optimize product merchandising
Let’s look at the other side of the profitability equation – increasing revenues. The profitability of smaller accounts increases greatly when you maximize sales in your micro market. A VMS has tools that help with this part of the equation, too. With a powerful product merchandising feature, you can see what products sell and which don’t. By doing this, you can swap out slow-selling items for high-demand products and increase sales. Plus, sales data helps you easily test new products to keep your customers engaged and buying.
4. Provide other services
Expand offerings beyond micro markets to maximize revenue in smaller locations. Give your customers the option of pantry services, office coffee services or even smart stores. By diversifying your business, you can get more juice out of the squeeze.
In the world of micro markets, having a bigger account typically leads to greater success. However, this doesn’t mean you should ignore the smaller ones. If you take steps to minimize your upfront and service costs while maximizing your sales, smaller accounts can fuel your micro market success.
