How to Tell Your Unique Story

Your family's story is of paramount importance to your success as an independent retailer. It connects the person and family behind the business to the person at the register. Shoppers want to hear it: 53% of Americans shop at small businesses due to more personal relationships, according to a GOBankingRates survey.

You can see examples of independent retailers successfully sharing their stories in the article, Small Stores, Big Hearts: Unleashing the Power of Personal Narratives in the World of Grocery Retail.

If you're unsure how to tell your story, start by defining it. Ask yourself these questions:

1. How did I get into the grocery industry?
   
   Some independent retailers got their start as children running through the aisles of grandpa and grandma's stores, taking over the family business after graduating high school or college. Others branched into grocery when their local store was for sale and thought, 'Why not?'
   
   Whatever your origin story, write it down, fine-tune it, and post it to your store website's About Us section. Then share parts of it in your communication with shoppers: celebrate your yearly store anniversary on social media, tell shoppers why you choose to open in their community; share a happy memory from the last five years.
   
   
2. What does my store do differently than the Walmart down the street, or the Aldi one town over?
   
   For some grocers, it's greeting shoppers by name or asking how their new puppy is taking to potty training. For others, it's their skilled butcher who cuts meat on site. 
   
   Jot down those differences and decide how to share them with shoppers. Will you turn those notes into a branding campaign, putting the differentiators on banners and signs in stores? Post them on social media and in your digital or printed circular?
   
   
3. Why would I choose this store over a competitor's store?
   
   As a member of your community, it's likely that whatever you love about your store, shoppers do, too! Tell them what you love about your store. Is it the local produce offerings from nearby farms? Is it providing jobs to your neighbors and supporting the local economy (did you know that for every dollar spent at a small business, $0.67 stays in the local community?)? 

All these questions — and your answers — are part of your business' story. When you start telling that story, whether it's on your website, on social media, in your circulars (or all three!), it becomes part of your brand identity: what your brand communicates, stands for, and how it makes your customers feel.