Grocery Delivery websites

[mduffley]

It took a long time, hours and hours- just really tedious work. We had a list of products on excel spreadsheets and just went through the store and marked down the price of every single item.

You can leave off a good amount of the products depending on your target market, but we tried to get almost everything. If you notify the grocery store ahead of time, some of our clients have been able to get a list of every product and their prices. From an excel sheet, we can upload it to the website.

We have a list of products with pictures and prices that we provide to our clients. They can get started with our prices and change them as they go, or they can get all the prices before they launch. You can hire two or three people and get it done in a day. Then you just have to update the excel sheet.

[Unreal030]

So basically you provide the pictures and prices and the like on your site. After you make the website and all of that basic crap out of the way after purchasing your software product then we hire 2 or 3 people, we go to whatever is the nearest grocery store near us that has the things we want at decent prices. We have our guys look up all the prices and whatnot and excel spreadsheet them.

We mark up the percentage price and charge them $4 delivery unless its over $75. I then have those 2 or 3 people helping to buy the goods every morning to put in the office and seperate them into orders, and then have them deliver as noted by the customer. Alright then, well then the main hard part would be hiring people that can take care of the morning purchasing and categorizing, and have the availability to make the deliveries.

Hmm I will think about this and I may purchase from you after I have been in college a bit and have adjusted to the new lifestyle.

Also it says you give lots of materials to help us. Would that include flyers and/or doorhangers? What exactly are those materials, it was kind of broad on what those items would be.

Thank you again for taking the time to answer these questions.

[mduffley]

We would design the flyers for you if you would like. We don't actually provide the flyers for you - you would have to purchase all of your marketing material. But we do have a designer who would cutomize your flyers for you and companies that we go through for our own marketing materials that we could set you up with.

The whole $4 delivery fee, over $75 it gets waived is just the way that WE do it ourselves. We have other clients using our software that use other methods - larger delivery fees with lower prices on products, etc. It's a matter of personal preference how you would do it yourself.

[Cobra]

Was you able to get a list of product prices from the store or was it just walking down each isle and writing them all down.

I live in the uk and would be interested in having a go at this over here, do you have any information you could send me?

Thankyou

[Unreal030]

The 899 I wouldn't have a problem with since I know I could make it up easy with this. The monthly 230-260 dollar fee however is definitely making me more cautious though, the 24/7 support and the other things (and graphic designer support) balances it out a bit but even though I probably could easily, I need to see on paper I could cover these costs, employee payment, printing of marketing materials such as fliers and door hangers, the non-retail office space or other storage means rental..and the like and other possible deductions from my income from the business while still making a profit before I would feel comfortable with it which means I need to make myself a business plan. I will have to draw up a business plan for myself in regards to this before I make a decision. The reason I note the delivery price and the like is, I understand I can change it all up myself, however I prefer to start with a successful model when possible with these things, and then change things accordingly after that if needed.

[mduffley]

PERSONALLY - we were not able to get a list of prices from the store (but we didn't ask, either). We had a list of products and we marked each price down by hand. It was a little tedious but most products are bunched together by brand, size, etc. For example, all Campbells Soup are $.99, so you don't have to write down the price of each individual can.

Cobra - you are unable to receive PMs so please email me at matthew.duffley@customgrocery.com to talk further. I can personally answer any questions that you have.

[Young Spark]

Like I said earlier in this post... the business seems successful... but what advice would you give to somebody who wanted to start a business sort of like yours (but wanted to start it on their own.) I'm not going to start one but just in case in the future somebody wants to start a business sort of like yours on their own without using your program (not that its bad, just they want to be independent?)

[mduffley]

My advice would be to start small and gradually grow from there. We started with a dvd delivery service on campus (www.oneclickvideo.com), moved on to the grocery delivery service, and now have moved on to software licensing. Each business has taught us lessons (good and bad) that we were able to apply to our next business.

[breatheeasy17]

paying college students at Cornell and Syracuse only $7 an hour to drive to stores and peoples houses? I would pay them a little more then that but if its ok with them I guess its alright

[ltressel]

MDuffley,

Congratulations!

I think your website if very successful and well thought out. I was wondering-is it possible to simplify the software to make it user friendly for senior citizens? I would be interested in looking into that market for the same concept.

Baby boomer gen is a good market to tap but as we all know they aren't the savviest.

Your reply would be most appreciated.

LT

[mduffley]

It would definitely be possible to simplify for senior citizens.

So far, the biggest problem that we have had with that age group is that they don't know how use the internet. It is almost more beneficial to target their children or home aids - people who will embrace using the internet for a service like this, and would place the orders for them.

We could simplify the software in a few different ways, and as the manager/owner of the business, I would recommend to cut down on the products that you carry, offer more nutritional/vitamins/supplements/etc products (maybe even prescriptions if possible?). You could also allow for phone and fax orders. We have thought about this quite a bit - but that age seems to be VERY particular and picky about what they buy. You could actually print up "menus" of products that you carry that they could choose from and call in their order or fax it to you. We could build that functionality into the website for you.

Please let me know if you have any other questions...

[mduffley]

paying college students at Cornell and Syracuse only $7 an hour to drive to stores and peoples houses? I would pay them a little more then that but if its ok with them I guess its alright

Our delivery drivers make out like bandits though - tips average $4.50 per delivery. We bundle four deliveries together in one hour blocks, so they can average about $20/hr. Sometimes a lot more.

A little cheap at $7.25/hr, but that is pretty good for out here - upstate NY has much lower cost of living and lower salaries in general.