Trace Grocery

problem statement:
‍ 
When grocery stores outsource their delivery operations, they sacrifice profitability, customer experience, and data

“Instacart generates so much traffic and online has grown so much since the pandemic [began] that you simply have to be there to capture that customer base.”
‍
- 3rd Bridge Analyst

3rd Party Delivery
(ex. Shipt)

  1. ✅ Online customer base captured
  2. ❌ Outsource customer experience & data
    ❌ Expensive 3rd party fees

In-House Delivery

  1. ✅ Online customer-base captured
    ✅ Customer experience & data owned
  2. ❌ Outside area of expertise
    ❌ Limited delivery footprint
    ❌ Employee intensive

No Delivery

  1. ✅ Focus on in-store experience
    ✅ Customer experience & data owned
  2. ❌ Lose customers to other stores that do grocery delivery

How Might We: Enable online grocery in-house?

7 WEEKS

To answer that question I explored with empathy: 

  • Completed 30 Instacart & DoorDash deliveries
  • Visited 21 Detroit-area grocery stores
  • Interviewed 49 grocery employees, managers, & customers
1 WEEK

Then, I identified key problems in the processes:

  • High number of product re-touches
  • Significant employee turnover
  • Long customer wait-times
  • Storage of food at different temperatures
2 WEEKS

Next, I identified quantified the size of each problem and selected focus-areas leveraging:

  • Employee hourly wage
  • Number of orders filled
  • Order time and number of touches
  • Forecasted online grocery growth
4 WEEKS

Next, I identified hypothesized and tested solutions:

  • 8 unique products brainstormed
  • 5 prototypes built
  • Less than $500 spent
  • Collected user feedback

I know! Let's develop a product that addresses those problems!

Introducing the Trace Grocery

  • Customer-accessible to reduce employee involevement
  • Stowable to reduce costly staging and infrastructure requirements
  • Propulsion-assistance to reduce physical strain on the labor force
  • Requires no additional store footprint
  • Temperature-controlled to ensure food-safety

Sold to Kroger in 2022

  • Reduced order fulfillment time by 34%
  • Reduced employee physical strain and order touches by 20%
  • Serves as a beachhead for GM to enter entirely new line of business