For our master’s thesis, we opted to address the challenge of assisting individuals in minimizing their household food waste by proposing a solution that transforms the online food selling and buying experience.
1. THE PROBLEM
5.5%
625€
of the total greenhouse gas emitions are due to home food waste. Short of the 8% generated by the fashion industry.
of yearly home income are thrown away as food waste in an average Spanish household.
2. DISCOVERY
Through household and industry qualitative and quantitative research as well as a deep user journey analysis and user testing of competitive businesses and our solution prototype, we found out 4 main takeouts:
50% of total home food waste happens in families with children. They are one of the main users of online grocery shopping.
Food waste happens due to lack of planning capacity to manage and remember home stocks, family members’ changes of plans and lack of time.
Cooked food is 4 times less likely to be wasted.
The mental fatigue and time investment about deciding what to buy, what to cook and when to do it is the main pain that family decisors face.
3. CHALLENGE
How to transform the way food is bought and sold to balance the quantities acquired and those actually needed in households, thus reducing waste and contributing to improving the environment?
4. FOCUS
A.
The current online buying processes begin one step too late into the consumer journey.
We decided to start by covering the very first one: the thinking about for whom the food needs to be prepared, what to cook and for when.
B.
The online market already offers all kinds of options. There’s no need to add one more independent player on top of them. It would imply a great operation and communication effort and would not simplify people’s lives.
5. THE SOLUTION:
MY MENU MODE
When clients enter any associated online store, our independent software solutions will let them choose to shop using Menu Mode with no extra charges.
The alternative buying process will work as follows:
1. Household long term info
Only the first time and in specific occasions, our system will gather the number of members, preferences, allergies, tastes, preferences, etc. for each household who wants to buy their food in a different way.
2. Household short term needs
The system collects info for the immediate shopping needs (member’s synced agenda with personal calendars, budget, time disposal to cook, special occasions, etc.) and offers a pre-scenario for the week or indicated period.
The user just needs to confirm or edit it to get to the next step.
The algorythm mixes both inputs and proposes a menu for the indicated period.
The client browses the proposal adjusting dishes and ingredients.
4. Basket
The selected dishes are turned into a shopping basket list that can be quickly processed.
Several indicators show the estimated savings in money and CO2. Clients can complement the Menu Mode with standard shopping if they wish to. This way, the same order can include both food and, for example, house cleaning items.
6. THE EXTRA BALL:
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Thanks to offering a value added experience, our system will be able to gather real data by linking household info to food purchase data in a way that’s never been available in the industry:
Actual composition, description and preferences of real client households.
Full understanding of the way households use purchased food products.
This information can be sold to both food brands and online stores, opening a new source of income to our business model and making it easier to stay free for clients.
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