Seeking input for a grocery comparison service solution

EmployeeLMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 12/07/2023 - 14:17
Last edited 12/07/2023 - 14:18

Hi Fellow Ozbargainers!

A mate of mine and I have been working on a solution to help bargain hunters and everyone really improve the shopping experience and ensure you're always getting value without spending heaps of time doing so.

Our research and trials suggest we can help consumers save up-to 6hrs and $150 on groceries each month by managing your sales shopping for consumers.

We'd love to get your thoughts on what features you'd want to see in such a product and how it might be able to replace or supplement your existing process of simplifying your grocery shopping and getting awesome value, all the time.

The overall idea would be for you to be able to build your grocery list > get recommendations on optimising it for value (eg, alternative products and better unit economics) > checkout in one place > either collect or have it delivered for a small fee that doesn't counteract the extra value.

I'd love your thoughts on how we could make these experiences the best for you:
1. Building and creating that list
2. getting relevant and useful recommendations
3. stocking up on sale items
4. convenience in collection/delivery.

Hope that makes sense, we're keen to use this forum to have a great chat about what we're doing and build something useful for all Aussies!

Thanks!!!

P.S.
You may have seen a deal that I posted yesterday which unfortunately got taken down due to 'sockpuppeting' - in complete transparency one of the people I spoke with at lunch in the co-working space upvoted and/or commented on it flagging an IP match :-(

So bringing the conversation here as I'm pretty sure that is ok from what I can see in the T's & C's

Poll Options expired

  • 14
    I'd use an app to monitor sales on if it was free and saved me $150/month on groceries
  • 1
    I'd use an app to monitor sales on if it cost $10/month & could save me $150/month on groceries
  • 17
    I don't want another app for grocery shopping, even if it can save me time and $150+/month
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Comments

  • screensaver on 12/07/2023 - 14:24
    -1

    I would do just a comparison of all the majors weekly specials that is IGA,Coles and Woolworths under, frozen, fresh, pantry, household, health and beauty etc. Then add a shopping cart

    • EmployeeMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 12/07/2023 - 15:05

      Nice, thank you.

  • Hybroid on 12/07/2023 - 14:28
    +6

    Feels like this has been tried several times and they all disappear after some time. Either too difficult or they cannot find a way to monetise it that the audience is happy with.

    I wouldn't use such a third party app personally but Ocado in the UK seems to have perfected exactly what you're going for. Maybe worth some research there.

    https://www.ocado.com/webshop/startWebshop.do

    • EmployeeMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 12/07/2023 - 15:03
      +1

      Thank you! Really interesting model. Looks like what Catch could be if they sold perishables…robot pick & pack and cheap prices

  • AustriaBargain on 12/07/2023 - 14:34

    If you think you can do it you should do it. Sounds like a big job though. Plus Aldi are pretty secretive and variable between stores with their prices. Not to mention Costco who don't publish a lot of their prices anywhere online.

    • EmployeeMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 12/07/2023 - 15:04

      Thanks. How important are Aldi and Costco to your grocery shopping routine?

    • payless69 on 12/07/2023 - 17:24

      Do they have Hofer in South Oz ?

      • AustriaBargain on 12/07/2023 - 17:36
        +1

        I’ve never heard of it, but maybe.

        • EmployeeMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 13/07/2023 - 09:12

          Hofer = Aldi?

  • randomusername2017 on 12/07/2023 - 14:47
    +3

    Good luck @ $9.99 p/m with all the established free options.

    simplifying your grocery shopping and getting awesome value, all the time.

    cringe

    • EmployeeMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 12/07/2023 - 15:04

      Thanks for your thoughts!

      • AustriaBargain on 12/07/2023 - 15:16

        What a lot of comparison services do is make a deal with one of the big players, like maybe you would offer gift cards or whatever to Coles. Like those phone comparison websites, they make money through funnelling visitors to certain providers. Though you need the user base before anyone will make deals with you.

        • EmployeeMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 13/07/2023 - 09:12

          Yup! Big chicken and egg style game. Thanks for the recommendation.

    • Chandler on 12/07/2023 - 17:33

      Good luck @ $9.99 p/m

      Yeah, that's gonna be a no from me.

      I do have a spreadsheet that I use to compare pricing - the issue is keeping it up to date. Some stores are easy enough because you can get pricing online, although it is still a pain to update. Do want to look and see if I can hook into their APIs to pull pricing data to help automate the process, but given this is a personal free-time project and free-time is pretty light on at the moment, not really happening…

      Said spreadsheet is also part of the reason it's a no - I'm not going to pay $120 a year for something I could setup myself with no ongoing cost. Yeah, if you take my time as an hourly rate it may take a year or more to "pay off", but it's not a visible cost and it's something I'm interested in doing in my free time.

      • EmployeeMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 13/07/2023 - 09:11

        Thats awesome! Yeh an API integration would be super helpful! otherwise you could try use a web scraper if you can capture the URLs of each product.

          • EmployeeMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 26/07/2023 - 12:00

            @Chandler: Thank you! That could be helpful, do you know of these for likes of Coles/Aldi/Amazon/Catch/Chemist Warehouse etc?

            • Chandler on 26/07/2023 - 12:17

              @Musketeerau: No. My own thought process for this tool for myself was to either find an API or failing that have a python script web scrape the data. Web scraping isn't ideal, since you're at the whim of the site maintaining it's formatting, but if it works…

  • [Deactivated] on 12/07/2023 - 16:28

    I think something like this would be great for seniors but would need to be easy to use, especially for those who may not be tech savvy. It would need to be free too so maybe sell it to the government so they can offer it to seniors.

    I parked next to an elderly couple last week and took their trolley to save them walking it to the returns bay. They left their Woolies receipt in the trolley and whilst their total grocery shop was >$100, they only had ~$7 in savings.

    • donga100 on 12/07/2023 - 17:03

      I parked next to an elderly couple last week and took their trolley to save them walking it to the returns bay. They left their Woolies receipt in the trolley and whilst their total grocery shop was >$100, they only had ~$7 in savings.

      Who cares about the "savings"? They are calculated using inflated RRPs that most people never pay anyway. For example, you "save" $2.35 off the regular price of $4.70 for corn chips but hardly anyone ever pays $4.70 because there will always be a brand on special or they buy the store brand for half price instead.

      • [Deactivated] on 12/07/2023 - 17:09
        +1

        That's the thing - the elderly couple only saved ~7% of their total grocery shop because they didn't purchase items that were on special & there were no home brand items on the invoice.

        • EmployeeMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 13/07/2023 - 09:10

          Its so frustrating isn't it and unfair. With all the promotions it should be way higher. What do your receipts usually show as savings @kajke

  • Ghost47 on 12/07/2023 - 19:39
    +2

    I think there's an app called Frugl Grocery that does this already.

  • leiiv on 13/07/2023 - 01:13

    No, it does not make sense. Especially this part:

    checkout in one place > either collect or have it delivered for a small fee that doesn't counteract the extra value

    That means you are running a grocery shop yourself? There is no way you can do delivery for a small fee. Only Amazon can do it cheap so far. Would you be able to compete with the woolies and coles half price special?
    Assuming you actually want to act as a proxy between consumers and supermarkets, a lot of the "deals" are targeted, eg flybuys and everyday rewards bonus points, or in-store only such as the woolworths mobile 10% off.

    Also, prove to us here that we can save $150+ each month.

  • Buyer0fBargains on 13/07/2023 - 07:34

    Frugl works fine for me, and I wouldn’t use the additional delivery service in your app so I don’t see it being a solution offering enough of a difference.

    • EmployeeMusketeerau @ Musketeer on 13/07/2023 - 09:09

      Fair, I'd be curious as to which features of Frugl do you use? Is there anything you think its missing?

  • Team Ozgiftcards on 16/07/2023 - 00:51

    Pricehipster does something similar

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