CONTEXT
Develop business software and identify financial opportunities. Transforming shopping into a brand new interactive experience.

PROBLEM
How might we make grocery shopping more personalized and increase revenue for the business?

SOLUTION
Integrate meal kit software into grocery stores. Transforming everyday shopping into a brand new interactive experience.

TEAM
Tarelle Butts, Rhea Brown, Edwin Rodriguez, Ojen Shammasian, Maile Malin

MY ROLE
My role consisted of market analysis, prototype development, qualitative and quantitative research,

User Research

To begin our research we looked into existing grocery store software that is being developed and found a lot already exists. There are Smart carts, smart shelves, stores that use augmented reality, mobile apps, self-checkouts, and much more! Some are widely successful, and others have already failed, but we kept wondering.

Shopper insights

We started out by speaking with 18 people about their grocery shopping process.
We found shoppers really enjoyed discovering new products, sampling foods, and hand selecting their own produce.

Issues Shoppers Face

We learned that shoppers have no time to plan meals or shopping lists, it’s difficult to find products in store,
and shoppers have trouble finding recipes for personal diets.

Online Shopping

None of the people we interviewed shopped for groceries online, they preferred to go in the store to hand select produce and perishables. However, we discovered that Meal Kits were an exception. One interviewee stated that she enjoyed ordering meal kits from Blue Apron. but although they were convenient, she still had to go in store to get snacks and breakfast

Market Analysis

According to Packaged Facts, the Meal Kit Market Delivers Sales of $5 Billion--and Disrupts Industry.

”This space is the most striking example of the movement toward greater convenience in getting fresh foods to the consumer," - David Sprinkle, research director for Packaged Facts.

Why are Meal Kits Popular

The meal-kit business is worth approximately $5 billion. Additionally, 17% of consumers in America have subscribed to a meal kit service at some point. Of the Americans who have subscribed to meal kit services, 90% referred other people to the service (Packaged Facts). People are busy and don’t have time to look up recipes and shop for groceries.

Persona

Meet Lydia. Lydia is a tech-savvy, young professional, married, and has a toddler. She likes shopping and cooking with her family, and especially enjoys discovering new foods and trying recipes. So why don’t they do this more often? They’re too busy to look for new recipes online or browse around the grocery store to find new products. They’re even too busy in general to plan meals or create shopping lists in advance.

Interactive

Lydia can conveniently shop and plan meals all in one place, try new recipes, discover complimentary products,
and find everything in one area of the store - perfect for her busy schedule.

Discovery

Once Lydia has discovered the service, she can download the app and find new recipes online, order ahead, and pick them up along with all her shopping basics in one trip. And when she gets home, she can use the website or app to watch videos of how to cook the meals she’s just purchased, adjust recipes to suit her family, and explore other recipes and cooking tips.

Shopper Survey

To see how customers responded to our concept, we sent out a survey along with a brief video showing how Lydia discovers the meal kit display and interacts with the tablet. We received 58 detailed responses!

businesses Responses?

We also talked to store managers to learn what businesses thought of our software. This is Jesus, 1 of the 4 managers we interviewed. 
We showed them the scenario videos and asked for their professional opinions. We received a lot of positive feedback. They suggested that we have more than one tablet per display. Originally we only had tablets and they said we should make them bigger, much bigger.

Financial Opportunities

These opportunities include sponsored recipes with brand specific products, cooking videos, and recommendations. Targeted ads based on customer orders and preferences. Product placement on displays. Partnerships with online recipe websites, social media influencers, guest chefs and more!