Target Audience:
There is a different psychology when customers buy a commodity good over other types of goods such as clothes, books, electronics, etc. A commodity good is a basic necessity. Customers don't get excited over acquiring a commodity good. Most people simply just buy their necessities because it is a necessary task. Most people don't think about when they need to buy the same thing again, or when their necessities will run out. The feeling after a purchase is one of relief, like you finished a chore you had to do and didn't quite enjoy. It is typically not fun to purchase listerine, toilet paper, or diapers yet people have to do it.
Below are target segments we believe would be interested in an online service for purchasing necessities:
Busy people who doesn’t have time to go out shopping.
Unorganized, lazy people who don’t plan ahead for what they need to buy, and usually end up buying more than what they need and are unaware of when some of the necessities are running out.
People living in a small complex that don’t have the real estate to stock up, so they can only buy a small amount each time and this means they have to shop more often.
People who don’t live within the vicinity of a store, so they stock up every time when they go shopping. If they run out of toilet paper, they have no other choice but to drive long distance to get one.
People who don’t have a car, it would be inconvenient for them to shop for bigger or heavier necessities because they’ll have to carry them all the way home by walking or taking a bus.
Parent’s who want to order necessities for their college kids so they can try to control their kids living budget.
People who want to order necessities for elderly family members or relatives to make sure they have everything they need.
Overview of New System
The new system will be run as a separate business. The new system will focus to address the online experience of purchasing household necessities. The new system is not intended to replace the retail experience. Qualities of the new system will be focused on improving accessibility, efficiency, simplicity, and flexibility. The goal is to make the process of buying necessities a more personalized experience.
Scheduling Orders
Users will have the ability to schedule orders for their necessities, and this is the core requirement feature of the new system. Necessities will ship out based on the specified frequency from the customer. Customers will be able to place recurring orders, so that they don’t have to go through the process to order their necessities again. Frequencies of scheduled orders will be available in monthly reoccurrence patterns.
Products
Only household necessities will be available for purchase in the website. Household necessities primarily involve repeat purchases. This will be important for the new system to work because purchasing a need is different from purchasing a want. By doing this, we will be able to tailor features that focus soley on improving the process to purchase needs.
The product categories featured in the new system include: Coffee & Tea, Baby & Child Care, Nutrition & Wellness, Personal Care & Beauty, Pet Supplies, Household Supplies, Snacks, Office Products & Supplies, and Organic products.
There are primarily two types of people who buy commodity goods. There are people who are loyal to brands and people that do not care about brands and simply buy what is currently the best deal. The new system will target those who do not care about the variety of brands. We will focus on only selling one type of product brand for each product type. The product that is chosen will be based on popularity and availability from manufacturers. We believe that limiting the scope to only 1 product for each product type is important to make the new system work. Amazon's system does not work because the scope of its product varieties are too large for the type of