A B2B2C platform driving business growth through improved acquisition, engagement and retention
Client: Brands Plus
Duration: 8 months
Team: Diana (Research), Dinesh (UI), Maria (UI), Andrew (Copy), Mili (Brand)
I led a multi-disciplinary team of designers to build the MVP for an ambitiously unique concept whose north star was to
Empower small independent brands to showcase their products to thousands of retailers nationwide and co-market with them to engage local consumers
Offer local retailers a sophisticated buying and selling infrastructure to shop exciting new products at wholesale prices and sell them profitably to their audience.
The Challenge
The world changed a lot during the pandemic as we saw our lives being disrupted like never before in our lifetime and were forced to relook at how we can rebuild the world around us. One of the many industries that went through this disruption was the food and grocery industry that experienced an unprecedented spike in demand with consumers facing empty shelves and long lines, and started shopping for their daily needs from the safety of their homes. This sent the apps for grocery retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Instacart off the charts, indicating a surge of brand-new customers who may have never placed an online grocery order before.
In these times, where few platforms have come to own and dominate the underlying infrastructure of online shopping platforms, fulfillment and shipment, where do regional grocers and small shops go from here? How can they compete successfully in such an intense environment? Can they use the pandemic as an opportunity to kind of start fresh again, make dynamic changes and offer an alternative to their customers?
Background & Objective
In 2021, we began collaborating with a startup whose mission was to create a democratized ecosystem that connects small regional brands anywhere in the world with local grocery stores in a way that empowers all of them to compete on a more level playing field with the likes of Walmart, Amazon and other big box retailers.
The mission was closely tied to the success of both brands and retailers. At the heart of this mission were two pre-pandemic trends that the lockdowns accelerated: the increasing adoption of technology among small businesses and the growing support for these businesses among consumers. Both retailers and brands needed to have access to cutting edge technology to differentiate themselves online to grow their wholesale and retail business respectively. On the wholesale side, the trade shows have been canceled or curtailed and even otherwise remain an antiquated way to source new inventory. When it comes to retail consumers have continued to show a deep interest in supporting businesses in their local communities and are keen to shop from them in the same, seamless manner as they are used to from the large conglomerates.
With consumer support and the power of technology, what was once a fragmented group of brands and retailers has the potential to become a thriving community, working together to create a better world for themselves and for all of us.
Initial Insights
I had already worked with the founding team on a pilot project to transform the shopping experience for over twenty local stores in New York City where we built a platform that allowed them to engage their audience online and provide their staff an efficient means for picking and delivering orders. This time around we started to discuss their issues on the sourcing side and the challenges retailers face to on-goingly discover and buy new SKUs. We also got introduced to dozens of regional brands who were supplying these stores and learnt about their pain points in growing their wholesale business.
As an outcome of such interactions, we identified a few core friction points that cripple the growth of these small businesses and prevent them from thriving amidst the threat of Amazon and Walmart:
Brands
Struggling to reach new retailers and grow their wholesale business
Difficulty in creating compelling story about their brand and catalog to engage their audiences
Difficulty in creating brand awareness with consumers especially when they are shopping for similar products
High cost and effort required in running sampling and shipping logistics
No insight into how their catalog is performing with both retailers and shoppers
Retailers
Inefficient and expensive to find and stock new interesting products on-goingly
Limited shelf space in store and no viable marketing opportunities online limit earning potential
Expensive and unviable to process orders: pick, pack and deliver them efficiently to local customers
Too expensive and complex to build cutting edge digital solutions to engage shoppers used to offerings from big box retailers
High cost and complexity to reach, engage and acquire local shoppers online
“Brands Plus has an exciting vision to bridge the gap between stores like us and our vendors. It has the potential to speed up the ordering process immensely and could very well become my go-to option to discover new offerings.”
A store owner in Chelsea, New York
Executive summary
The wholesale marketplace reinventing how retailers and food makers prosper together by offering brands everything they need to sell in one place and retailers tools to shop wholesale and engage their shoppers online!
Below I share some of the highlights of how our solution creates exceptional experiences for food makers, retailers and shoppers.
Retailers: Create a better way to shop wholesale
The heart of the offering is a b2b wholesale marketplace that allows retailers to discover interesting new products from brands all over the world and shop seamlessly with friendly terms and risk free returns on every new order. One of the highlights of the marketplace is compelling category/trend pages that combine industry level insight and news with platform specific browsing and shopping trends to provide a compelling story to both retailers and brands trading in that space. The objective is that businesses will return to this page for op-eds on the industry, catch up on the latest curated news bytes, view featured, top-selling or latest brands to join the platform and access hot specials in the category.
Retailers: Monetise digital assets by co-marketing with favorite brands
Grocery retail is fundamentally a low margin business. In a low margin industry where margins range between 4% to 8% and where costs for running an e-commerce business are NOT lower than running a bricks and mortar business, it is imperative for small retailers to not only improve their operational efficiencies but also create more revenue opportunities from the online operations. Brands Plus offers retailers co-op marketing opportunities with chosen brands to help them unlock new sources of revenue from CPG companies, distributors or brands that want to secure digital space for promotions, preferential product placements, as well as to explore data-sharing endeavors.
Retailers: Offer complete digital suite to sell, process and fulfill orders online
With consumers having more choices than ever before when it comes to shopping online, the user experience in the e-commerce journey is becoming increasingly relevant for them in deciding where to shop.
We also allowed grocers to optimize the mix of third-party and in-house fulfillment capabilities to create the right infrastructure to deliver orders while being cost effective and agile. For in-house fulfillment operations, we designed technology to support micro-fulfillment centers to enable pickup capacity in their existing spaces. Similarly, for delivery operations, our solutions enabled testing outsourced-driver models to cater to instant and same-day e-commerce demand.
Brands: Building new partnerships or expanding existing ones
The B2B marketplace platform empowered brand owners to present themselves to dozens of local, independent stores nationwide. The platform provides them intuitive tools to build compelling brand stories and robust product catalogs quickly and efficiently. The offering is also backed by a friendly warehousing and shipping program allowing small international brands to offer and sell their products across the US.
Brands: Fueling their brand awareness online
Brand owners could use the platform to not only connect with retailers nationwide but also collaborate with them to create co-marketing opportunities where they can showcase their brand, catalog and specials to their shoppers online. This is driven with a sponsorship program using which brands can take over premium placements on relevant category/SERP pages. Select brands could also opt in for exclusive campaigns to run targeted promotions with different audience segments across popular social media platforms.
Brands: Tracking brand and marketing performance
Brand owners will have access to a live dashboard that provides data to see how their catalog is performing, where the traffic to the shop comes from and how shoppers are engaging with their listings.