Strengths

• Target market are potential costumers

The target market which Ace Grocers is focusing is upper and upper middle class. These costumers are always potential costumers and they usually don’t hesitate to shop for big amounts. These people are found very updated and trendy and spend lots of money in shopping new and high quality brands.

• Targeting educated people

As the targeted audience is educated so it will be easier to adopt the new system of online shopping for them. They are already aware of using the computers and most of these people have internet access at homes and work places so it will be a great convenient for these people to shop online. 

• Innovation

As the idea of online grocery shopping is new in the city, none of the grocery stores have ever tried it and neither the costumers experienced it before so our targeted audience will try it at least once or twice for a new experience.

• Saving time of shopping

The one of the major strengths of Ace Grocers is its saving valuable time of the costumers by offering online shopping. This is also one of the sustainable competitive advantages of the company.

• Convenience in shopping

When costumers shop online, it not only saves their time but it also saves their efforts which they have to make while going to any grocery store. Especially in summer season in the city like Lahore where the weather is always hot and humid, it feels very difficult to people to come out from the home and go for buying daily use grocery items. So costumers can save their time, efforts and energy which they used to surf while shopping some where else.

• Home delivery

Home delivery is one of the elements of the core business of Ace Grocers. This is also the innovation made by the retail outlet and there is no competitor exists yet in the market which is offering home delivery in the city. So it is the main strength of the company.

• Human resource management

Human resource management is also one of the competitive sustainable advantages of the company. The sales staff in the retail outlet is well trained to handle the orders and to deliver it in time. They are also expert in stock keeping in the store. These employees are managing all the stock with the help of a database which helps them and tells the exact quantities of the products in the store. The database keeps the employees updated with the current position of the stock and hence the sales staff work efficiently in managing all the stock.

• Good relation with vendors

It is the most crucial thing when it comes to the vendors side, this is another great strength of Ace Grocers that it can easily make very good relations with their vendors because in the online database through which the costumer shop, contains all the features of the products along with the print media ad of that particular produce. In this way Ace Grocers is also promoting the brands of its vendors and people are becoming more aware of the product features. So in this way vendors have a great advantage in selling their products through our outlet. So they will always prefer to give us their products even in the time of shortage and it will lead to a good relationship with the vendors.

• Product awareness to the costumers

The online database which the costumer is using for placing an order online contains all the information about the products. There is a tab of "details" in front of every product. The costumer can get all the details of features of that product and the costumer can also see the print media ad of that product. So its another big strength of Ace Grocers that it is giving awareness to the costumers about the products.

• Good exposure to new brands

It is always difficult to promote new brands in the market when there is a high competition between the similar products is going on. So in such a competitive market Ace Grocers is giving a good exposure to the new brands through its online database system.

• Costumer services

As the human resource is one of the biggest strength of the retail outlet so Ace Grocers is also using its strength in the costumer services. There are three persons hired specially to guide the new walk in costumers about the software. They guide the costumers how to place the order, and they are also serve the frequent costumers with tea or coffee while the order delivers.

• Online database and billing system

As the process of online shopping is described above, it also helps in doing segmentation of the costumers. Every costumer who is shopping through our database will be allotted a costumer ID and every time the costumer shops he/she has to give his/her costumer ID first in the database. In this way we collect all the records of the costumers that who is our potential costumer and who is not. Similarly online billing tells us the amount every costumer spent in shopping. We can easily divide our costumers in to different segments with the help of our online database.

Weaknesses

• Illiterate costumers are ignored

One of the weaknesses of Ace Grocers is that it is ignoring the uneducated people at all. Online shopping can only be done by the costumers who are educated and computer literate.

• Low trend of online shopping in the city

Another disadvantage which Ace Grocers will be facing in the beginning is the low trend of online shopping in the people through out the city. Online grocery shopping is a new concept introduced by the Ace Grocers, so it will take some time to promote this new trend.

• Ace Grocers has to charge for home delivery

There is a heavy cost of fuel which will incur every month for the Ace Grocers. So they have to charge for the home delivery from their costumers. This may discourage few costumers if they can easily access to any grocery store nearby their home.

Opportunities

• Diversification:

Ace Grocers can diversify in to some other categories other than grocery in the future. Some of the favorable categories could be electronics, mobile phones and accessories, fast food and clothing etc.

• Own their outlet:

They can buy their land and construct the new big outlet to get rid of the rental space. It will cost high initially but with in few years they can recover their cost and then they can save their rent expense forever.

• Ace Grocers can have ware houses:

They can have their number of ware houses throughout the city. The main purpose of these ware houses is to keep the stock of all the items. By having the ware houses at different locations of the city, they can deliver the order to their costumers from the nearest ware house where the costumer is located. It will save the time and cost of delivering the order.

• Increase the number of outlets

They can increase the number of outlets in the city. By multiplying the number of outlets in the Lahore they can cover the whole city and recognize the brand of their retail outlet all over the city.

• Open the outlets in other big cities:

They can open their retail outlets in other big cities of Pakistan. This is a big opportunity waiting for Ace Grocers because there is no direct competitor exist in the country yet which is offering such online grocery shopping to the costumers. So Ace Grocers can easily expand their network in other big cities like Islamabad and Karachi.

• Economies of scale:

Innovation, convenience, home delivery, costumer services, online database and billing system are such strengths of the Ace Grocers through which they can achieve economies of scale by using these strengths in an effective way.

• Launching of private brands:

Ace Grocers can launch their private brands of different products in the future. They can also promote their private brands through their web.

• Promotion of private brands:

Ace Grocers can make any of their private brands successful by promoting it through wed resources and can easily compete with other national brands.

• Strong brand recognition:

This is a great opportunity for the Ace Grocers that they can establish strong brand recognition in the market through their marketing campaigns before any new competitor.

Threats

• The idea of online grocery shopping can be copied
• People might hesitate to shop online
• Costumers might hesitate to give their credit card no to avoid any misuse