1. Stanford University / Venture Lab / Technology Entrepreneurship / Class of 2012
Opportunity Analysis Project
InnoShop
Optimisation of shopping activities

2. Concept
 Prevalent shopping trolleys and shopping tills are
inconvenient for customers. Supermarkets do not
utilise potential capabilities of currently available
innovative products whose synergy would bring
benefits to sellers and buyers alike. Our team is
analysing reasons for this problem and constructing a
system which supermarkets would be willing to use.
 We offer shopping optimisation system, currently
consisting of innovative shopping trolleys with
integrated bar code scanners, and additional services
enabling stores to employ those trolleys optimally.
Trolleys and supplemental articles can be sold and
rented.

3. Understanding German market size
 Distribution of the number of stores is seen in the
below pie chart
A total of 23369 stores REWE group has the
were most potential to be
found which were either exploited
super/hypermarkets for our business

4. German market
Estimated
Store current market
(in USD)
EDEKA 12300000
LIDL 9900000
PLUS GROUP 8520000
REWE GROUP 26817000
ALDI 12570000
~70M$ is the current
market for the shopping TOTAL 70107000
carts in Germany

5. Understanding the German Cart Market
The base for the calculation in the
previous slides is as follows:
 The cost of each shopping cart is averaged to be 50
USD
based on www.alibaba.com
 The average number of carts in stores is taken
around 60
according to our observation in Hamburg, Berlin and
Frankfurt
The overall estimate of the Market that our Idea can
potentially

6. Survey with managers
 What differentiates your brand from the
rest?
 1 manager: Supply chain management
 1 manager: Staff management
 1 manager: Store organisation
 2 managers: leadership in discount products
“We as a brand strive to be market leaders in
supply chain and currently have one of the best
supply chain management models across the
industry.”
Brand Manager in Frankfurt area, 2012

7. Survey with managers
 Are you currently interested in finding new
ways to distinguish your brand?
4 Managers: yes
1 Manager : Currently no
“Results of the last financial year are not so
encouraging for us to invest in this technology
right now…”
Marketing In-charge in Hamburg area, 2012

8. Survey with managers
 Would you be interested in implementing
pilot project with us?
a. 3 managers: yes
b. 2 managers: no, our current system is
satisfactory
“We focus mainly on attracting selective target
customers and have various schemes to achieve
it, hence I would tell you that we value innovation,
especially in technology that would help us in
brand building and thereby act as key market
differentiator ”
Marketing In-charge in Berlin area, 2012

9. Survey with 20
end users in
Germany

10. “I do not like standing in long queues. They are especially time-
wasting during peak time after I finish work, and need to go
shopping. Therefore I am going to use any checkout system if it will
save time for me.”
Male student in Berlin area, 2012
“If I need to buy only 1 or 2 things fast, and see a lot of people
queuing, then I sometimes put things back and go out.”
Female pensioner in Hamburg area, 2012
“I shop at department store one time in a week, so I buy a lot of
stuff at once. I could put small and fragile items safely and
conveniently into different compartments of the cart, if only such
thing existed.”
Female student in Berlin area, 2012

11. Open questions for end users (20
participants):
 What is one most annoying thing about shopping in this department
store?
 15 participants: Long queues / long waiting time to be served
 3 participants: Obstructions to free moving (other carts on the way, too
narrow crossings at certain areas)
 2 participants: No opinion / no annoyance
 What do you think about the trolley you are currently using?
 11 participants stated moderate dissatisfaction
 4 participants: high dissatisfaction
 2 participants could not tell whether they like current trolley or not
 3 participants liked the cart
“I don’t like shopping at all. I mostly hate to stand waiting for a long time
in a queue. Shopping trolleys look like they are designed only to be
conveniently separated from each other, but not used for convenient
shopping.”
Employed male in Hamburg area, 2012

12. Open questions for end users (20
participants):
 What main changes would be most preferred by you in the store or the
cart (one participant can give more than one suggestion)?
 13 participants: Reduce waiting time / reduce queues / install more service
points
 7 participants: Improve manoeuvrability of the trolley (by reducing width /
length of the cart, improving wheels)
 7 participants: Lighter weight of the shopping cart
 5 participants: Improve wheels for better manoeuvrability
 5 participants: Have a shopping list fixing system (use a clip (similar to
laundry clip) / use a mini post board and pin attached)
 4 participants: Have a mobile phone fixing system on the shopping cart
“I don’t like shopping at all. I mostly hate to stand waiting for a
long time in a queue. Shopping trolleys look like they are
designed only to be conveniently separated from each other,
but not used for convenient shopping.”
Employed male in Hamburg area, 2012

13. Customer survey link
The customers surveyed
could opt any number of
changes. 20 customers
participated in the survey
and this gave us some
outlook on how customers
could influence the stores
to think on improving the
existing system of the cart
based on customer
demand
If this technology would have impact on less waiting time
problem of customer certainly there would be a huge
opportunity and with estimated market of our product we
could built a high demand solution to the problem.

14. Pitching the cost of our product
 Well this needs some caution as the existing system
of carts costs 50$, we would need to have a price near
to it for conventional competitive strategy or follow
blue ocean strategy through innovation.
 The market space is uncontested as we would be the
first to implement an integration of such a concept.
 In this scenario the competition becomes quite
irrelevant and only market differentiator product which
is low cost as well.
 This innovative shopping solution would give the first
company that adopts it a brand image and huge
leverage that the later entrants would not be as
benefitted. This is well supported by the survey results
though sample was small, we believe that that’s the
normal tendency of a consumer. This would create
and capture new demand in the market.