EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Are you tired of spending hours at local food stores searching for high-quality food? Introducing Smart Shopping, the solution to all your gourmet food needs. Especially for people with exceptional standards who always have busy working weeks, it is tough to shop for their favourite premium food in various local food stores with different opening hours. Smart shopping provides the possibility that people who are time-constrained can search in the App as “Users” for “Shoppers”, who will do their gourmet food shopping and deliver it to their doorstep. Additionally, the “Shoppers” are incentivised as motivation to do the shopping. All in all, it will be a win-win-situation for both sides.

Goal

We want to provide a platform where people with special standards can buy delicacies and premium food from selected local stores in Vienna and the surrounding area. Our goal is to get it delivered in a fast and convenient way so that people can explore and satisfy their demands for a high level of taste and quality. In doing so, we focus on individual stores that offer ordinary but also extraordinary gourmet food in the high-priced segment.

Methodology

We handled the issue of people with special standards not having enough time to shop premium food using the lean startup methodology by first conducting surveys and in-person interviews to validate this issue. We then used this data to create our solution, which consists of grouping various products onto a single platform and providing quick and flexible delivery options to our customers. We also made sure to test and validate our approach by developing several prototypes and soliciting consumer feedback. We were able to improve our solution and make sure that it satisfied the needs of our target market thanks to this iterative procedure. Additionally, we were able to keep expenses and risks to a minimum while concentrating on client demands, testing and validating our solution, and iterating as necessary by employing the lean startup methodology. As a result, we were able to develop a solution that is more likely to be successful on the market and is specifically suited to the demands of our customers. In total, we surveyed 128 people and interviewed over 80 people.

Results

As previously stated, the application of the lean start-up strategy resulted in the following outcomes:

• We were able to confirm through our interviews that the task of shopping for food is often time-consuming for our target segment, namely the users.

• As a result of wanting to inspect the quality and preferring to shop at local establishments, we discovered that individuals dislike online grocery shopping. In the meantime, they prefer to purchase gourmet food online given that these specialty stores are dispersed over Vienna and some of them don't even provide delivery services.

• Further, we verified that our second target group, the shoppers, are willing to shop for others in exchange for a reasonable financial reward.

• Most significantly, we realized that customers are keen to pay for a service that will have gourmet food delivered to their homes.

In light of all the previously stated and verified hypotheses, we can confidently assert that our start-up plan to introduce Smart Shopping to the market has a strong chance of becoming a success.

Cooperation Partner

• SmartShopping

Contact Person

• florian.grill@s.wu.ac.at

Student Team

• Christoph Helmberger

• Florian Grill

• Julian Küßler

• Mariza Qendro

• Yannis Schlögelhofer

Project Manager

• Thomas Pannermayr

• Alexander Staub