Idea 34: Shopping 3.0

Problem:

Due to the advances of the internet, many companies have to rethink the way in which they conduct business. An industry that might be one of the most heavily influenced ones is the fashion industry. Although e-commerce offers a latitude of new ways regarding the question of how a company can interact with its customers, one of the problems that lingers in the background is the decreasing number of customers that actually visit a store physically.

Solution:

Although physical stores might be something of the past in the near future, fashion stores could still use the advantages of e-commerce to enhance the physical shopping experience by making it more efficient and thus extend their own lives in a world that moves slowly towards a digital revolution. As we live in a society in which “time” has become a scarce resource. people might appreciate efforts that will help them to make the most out of it. Hence, fashion stores could create a system that would allow their customers to “book” the cloths they are interested in online, for a specific date and time during which they would be able to try them on physically in the store. This way, people would be able to brows through varieties of different cloths online and still enjoy the value of shopping in a physical way while saving time.  In addition, customers could be able to add certain comments to their “booking” such as “looking for suitable accessories” or “the specific occasion the cloths are for” to make the shopping experience an even more tailored/individualized and personal one. To close the loop and thus go one step further, stores could take the actual “measures” of their customers once they are in the store to assure the most personalized shopping experience possible made available for the mass market.

Idea 19: Supermarkets for Singles

Problem:

Wasting food is a problem of developed countries. Some people blame it on the expiration date, some people blame it on peoples’ general wasteful natures, and some people blame it on shopping habits. Whatever the reason might be, there is one aspect that appears to happen quite often: buying too much of one thing which one cannot consume alone before it goes bad based on the volume in which it comes in. This especially happens to singles.

Singles appear to have certain living and eating habits that often don’t go together with what the usual supermarket provides. Quantities for bred are too big, chick peas come in too large containers, chicken wings come in 2kg bags, and marmalade glasses are so big they could last for years.

In the end, much of the food that is bought is opened for a one person meal and later is possibly not used again for however long as “variety” and frozen meals take over the food calendar. As a result, some of the foods that were bought land in the trash, as it is always easier to simply “clean” the fridge instead of checking if the food that was opened three days ago is still eatable (how can we be really sure that this is still good? not sure, so lets throw it away)!!!

Solution:

Supermarkets have about three types of customers: families, couples and singles. As stated, the problem is that the quantities/volume of food of a particular item, which are usually offered, are perfect mainly for families.  Thus, there is possibly an opportunity for segmentation here.

Nowadays, many supermarkets, for example DIA in Spain, bring out their own branded products, which are usually cheaper. Thus, as supermarkets have the possibility to create their “own brands”, they might also be able to determine the quantities of food that are used for one item. If this is the case, segmentation could run its course with the end result of creating small individual supermarkets focused on the market segment of singles.

Taking this one step further:

Once a supermarket like that has been opened, data can be collected on the actual buying habits of singles, (how much is bought of what item) which are based on the assumption that singles buy food for only one particular meal. Once this has been established, supermarkets might be able to “totally” get rid of packaging by providing reusable “containers” (for a lack of a better word) for some particular foods (this is not new as it is already used with fruits and vegetables) Examples:

• Spaghetti: Instead of coming prepackaged, spaghetti could come in larger amounts from which people are able to take what they want based on what they need for their meal and priced based on the weight
• Butter: Instead of coming prepackaged, it could come in a larger container/piece from which certain pieces are taken of and put in the reusable container and priced based on the weight
• Also applicable to frozen foods, coffee, sweets, teas, and maybe even drinks such as water

In the end, one would create a supermarket that offers customizable quantities for most foods available and thus, one that has a positive impact on the society, as it reduces the waste of food and trash in general due reduced packaging and business intelligence focused on buying habits. Also, this type of idea might even create more jobs: How? People usually know what they want to buy or need – the reason for why a shopping list exists. This shopping list could be used to be send to the supermarkets that would then use it to “complete” it the list, taking away what is asked for from the “stock” of foods. To do this many things have to happen in terms of logistics, and part of that is the implementation of more human capital to get this service done in a manageable and timely manner.

Idea 7: Ultimate Shopping App

Problem:

Every week different supermarkets usually offer several discounts on different products. In addition, some supermarkets always offer some products cheaper than others. In times of economic difficulties being able to save 5 or 8€ on each shopping trip makes a big difference. However, knowing where what and what not to buy is a complicated business due to the variety of supermarkets/products and when understanding where one can get the best overall deal when talking about an entire shopping list and not only single products.

Solution:

Creating an app that allows one to enter one’s shopping list or search for single products with recommendations on where the get the best deals/the best overall deal based on publicly available prices and weekly discounts that will be used to compare products of different supermarkets with each other in a combined database. This database would need to be updated on a constant basis, which might be a problem, but as this app might also mean free “advertising” for the single supermarkets, a reason for why information regarding prices would be made freely available easily might exist.

Idea 6: Virtual Fitting Rooms

Problem:

Going shopping and finding the right clothes is sometimes a difficult adventure. It can be divided into four parts: finding what one likes, finding the right size, finding something that fits with other things that one likes, and waiting in line to enter the fitting rooms to possibly figure out that what one thinks goes together doesn’t actually work or that the size is not the right one. In the end, time is wasted especially when there are not that many fitting rooms in the store.

Solution:

Although the size question can only be figured out by actually trying the cloths on, understanding what different cloths go together is something that could be solved in a different way. Many stores already display these manikins that serve as guidelines in terms of acceptable outfits; however, in a limited number with limited designs. Using manikin size touch screens that allow to combine different cloths might solve this problem and create a different shopping experience. For example: A store has 15 different types of pants, 15 different types of shirts, several shoes etc. ….all what would have to be done is to take one model and take several HD pictures of any combination possible, display them digitally and allow customers to interact with a program to figure out what combination fits best to their style. Going one step further, one could use virtual reality to integrate a customers measurements and photo into the system to make the overall experience even more personal and interactive. The measurements would “only” have to be taken once as long as the customer doesn’t change his/her body size dramatically which would facilitate further shopping trips and possibly increase loyalty due to the changed customer experience that might save some time based on a problem that was solved before entering the fitting room – the question of what goes with what.

Idea 3: Smart Fridge

Problem:

People often do not know what to cook with the groceries they have in their fridges or in general what they have in their fridges at all. In addition, based on standard fridge layouts, the first thing in will most likely be the last thing out which often results in rotten and forgotten vegetables and other unloved food varieties.

Solution:

Combining the layout of medical fridges with the fact that almost every household has access to internet! Medical fridges allow for movable trays which offer a facilitated access to the things that are at the end of the fridge without having to take out everything that stands in the front. A stronger design probably would have to be invented based on the higher weight of groceries in comparison to medical things; but this should not be that complicated. Overall, being able to move a tray allows for better organization of and access  to the stored food. In regards to what to cook with what one has, the fridge needs to somehow understand what is inside and compare that with a stored or online recipe. Creating a process of being able to assign a variable to a certain grocery might solve that problem; for instance, tomatoes = 1 and burger meet = 2  while of course being able to add the weight of the products as well as expiration date. Although this might enlarge the shopping experience through an increased time that is needed to list what was bought, the positive consequences might outweigh that particular negative as one can now cook certain meals with what is in the fridge and also buy specific groceries that are needed to cook specific meals in time based on the saved expiration date. In the end, meals cooked could be saved, eating habits analyzed based on meals cooked and groceries bought, which consequently could also uncover healthy or unhealthy eating habits through listing calories while saving food due to the on time consumption based on the saved expiration date.  Of course this idea needs more development but could add value on multiple fronts.