Online Shopping
The world wide web is as huge as the universe that allows the consumer and businesses to perform the necessary tasks to stay afloat. The internet made its way from the computer to mobile phones, to televisions, and even to cars. Online shopping also made its way to various platforms to make it easier for the consumer. Amazon and Alibaba are two of the biggest online shopping websites worth multi-billions of dollars in stock. The covid-19 pandemic tremendously and rapidly increased traffic to websites like this as many people made use of online shopping. Although some businesses do not have an online platform yet, they will be a force in their markets should they adopt this strategy. Some fear that it will drive away foot traffic from their physical stores. However, an online store for your business will potentially give birth to an increase in revenue and clientele. Everything we do involves the web, therefore, businesses should invest more time and money in pursuing this ideal.
Basket Pay
Queues at grocery supermarkets can be an absolute nightmare, particularly when everyone gets paid their salary or wages. Consumers flock to the stores creating immense chaos and spending as if there is no tomorrow. This put tellers, sales assistants, and floor supervisors/managers under extreme pressure because now they’re faced with an overloaded store. The queues are pilling up and the shoppers are bumping carts with one another
A crazy idea, that can put this dilemma to bed, to have control, and make it quicker for the shopper is to implement a “basket pay” approach (a term I just made up). You’re an ordinary shopper heading out to do your monthly grocery shopping and you grab the nearest empty cart. The store is full and the only thing you can think of is to get out of here as soon as possible for you've got many other errands to attend to tomorrow. A couple of moments later, all your items are thrown into the shopping cart. This is where the nightmare begins - the long queue. What if there was a way to shorten the wait time?
Imagine pushing your shopping cart through a scanner, that looks like a walk-through metal detector, that will be able to detect what products are in your cart as well as the price no matter if the products are scattered in your cart. The scanner can automatically calculate the number of products in your cart, the cost of each product, and the final amount.
A system like this will ultimately reduce the congestion in stores, speed up the wait time in queues, and in turn, drive traffic to your store because of how quick the “basket pay” system works. Consumers will have more time on their hands instead of spending most of it in a congested supermarket.
Virtual Store
As mentioned in the first point of this article, online shopping generates a huge amount of revenue for companies that have brick-and-mortar stores as well. Then, some are click-only companies. Online shopping can vary from perishable goods, electronics, building materials, and supplies and clothing, etc. Click-only companies make sure that their websites are very user-friendly and implement a simple graphical user interface so that anyone can navigate and operate it.
What if you were able to be in a store without physically being in it? Virtual reality! You just got paid and you need to be at the store to fill your kitchen cabinets but, the thought of going to a congested store bothers you. However, you want to be in the store because you enjoy the shopping experience. Imagine going to your favorite supermarket or mall, on your computer. Think of it as virtual shopping. You choose a character and a name and, roam down the isles as you select the products of your choice. You are also able to communicate with other shoppers in your virtual reality. Regardless of how many users are logged in, after a certain amount, it will become its pool of shoppers. In other words, for every twenty shoppers that log into the online virtual store, only those twenty will be able to see and communicate with each other. Each twenty will be in a class of its own.
As soon as your shopping is done, you can navigate your character to the bot teller where you will make payment either via card or cash on delivery. Your basket will be delivered to you upon check out and successful payment of your items. Think of this idea like Grand Theft Auto. Young adults and teenagers can also engage in this experience as it will feel like it’s a game. A developer or developers that can master this approach to online shopping will create a whole new shopping experience for the consumer. It will make shopping much more fun for those who like to walk the isles.
Cook App
The working parents are always faced with the question: “What must I cook for dinner tonight?” Fast foods aren’t always the most viable option especially if you’re raising little ones that need to grow strong by eating healthy homemade cooked food. You’re sitting at your desk working and thinking of making roast chicken with roast potatoes and a variety of vegetables. Eventually, when you get home from work, you notice that you lack a few ingredients. You’re now forced to change your mind from roast chicken to Spaghetti Bolognese, unless, you run to the grocery store for the ingredients to complete your roast chicken recipe.
After a long day of work, the two things on your mind are to cook for your family and to spend time with them. But, that time was cut short because you had to run to the store.
What if there was a way to make sure you will always have the ingredients available to make any dish you desire? I got an idea! An app or website where you can order the ingredients for a specific dish. Think of it as an online retail store, but in this case, it’s an online grocery/kitchen store.
The app or website will have many meal varieties you can choose from, whether it is breakfast, lunch, or dinner. For example, if you click on a picture or a link that reads or depicts roast chicken, it will take you directly to the cost of all the ingredients and their prices, and subsequently, the final cost. You can add and delete as many ingredients as your heart desires. As soon as you’re happy with the ingredients for the dish you selected as well as the quantity of each, you can proceed to check-out for payment. You can choose for the ingredients of your dish to be delivered to your work premises, home, or any address you desire.
Consumers that generally do not have the time to get to a store can choose the option for a meal plan on the app or website, for the week. You can choose a meal plan for every day of the week i.e. Monday will be roast potatoes with vegetables, Tuesday will be Spaghetti Bolognese, Wednesday will be beef stroganoff, etc.
An app like this will not only become dominant in the industry and but will also make the lives of consumers easier and simpler.
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