Apparecchiato.it

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Apparecchiato.it : Local Grocery Delivery E-Commerce

ItalyVerona, Italy
Year Founded:
2013
Organization type: 
for profit
Project Stage:
Start-Up
Budget: 
$10,000 - $50,000
Website:
http://www.apparecchiato.it
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Apparecchiato.it is an online market for the sale and distribution of local food. We create a direct connection between small producers and customers, cutting the supply chain and managing the product’s delivery.

On one hand we give customers the opportunity to reach higher quality and home delivered local agricultural products; on the other hand smallholder farmers access to an innovative and more profitable (and economically fair) distribution channel. They also take advantage from Apparecchiato.it’s marketing channels and from the network synergies.

Finally, our logistic model (without warehouses) and the short supply chain strongly reduce the pollutant impact of delivery.

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if smallholder farmers were directly linked to the final costumers and therefore became the very core of the market?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

1. Producers receive only a small part of the economic value generated by the product sales. Consequently, producers are forced to produce lower quality goods and to turn to agricultural intensive techniques that impoverish the soil 2. Smallholder farmers often do not have access to any different distribution channel than direct selling in local farmer markets. They cannot afford to enter into new digital distribution and marketing channels or they do not know what these channels are. They end up with no chances to reach the market. 3. Several people do not have time to spend in grocery purchasing and especially in high quality products 4. Several people cannot physically go to shops because of handicaps, old age, etc. 5. Food freshness is an issue because large scale retail traders usually store fresh food for weeks before they reach the shelves 6. The inbound logistics generate a big amount of pollution because of goods coming from long distances 7. The inbound logistics generates a big amount of pollution because of goods coming from long distances

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

1. Creation of a local network of smallholder farmers directly linked to the final customer through an e-commerce website and an integrated logistic system. 2. Apparecchiato.it gives customers the chance to purchase local groceries quickly and everywhere, leveraging a cutting edge e-commerce website (expected release date: beginning of October 2014) and an app (expected release date: beginning of December 2014). 3. Home delivery system solves the social issue of people with physical disability. 4. Thanks to a business model without any warehouse and the possibility to plan logistic on received orders, we are able to apply an actual just-in-time service, granting daily freshness for every product. 5. Apparecchiato.it’s model cuts both inbound and outbound logistics by using a single van following an optimized route, strongly reducing the overall environmental impact.
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

Local producers are the very core of the market. They can achieve higher economical returns and therefore invest in higher quality products, in structures improvement, and in the image of their land. Meanwhile the short supply chain allows that the margins be shared between two parts only: Apparecchiato.it and the producer. This enables us to apply more competitive prices with benefits for the final consumer. Suppliers are structured in virtually independent local networks (one per each target average dimension city). Other goals of these networks are to create initiatives supporting local economy and territory. Each one of these activities is an important brick for the construction of this change. The customer purchases through an innovative e-commerce website choosing from a broad range of high quality products with reliable origin, which could hardly be found in supermarkets. Customers receive the groceries at their houses or offices, choosing the payment methodology, delivery day and time they prefer. In every day of delivery, the van picks up the products from each producer in its network with an optimized route and in the meanwhile the delivery man composes the orders by following a precise procedure. At the end, the delivery begins, and goes on until 10.00 pm. In this way the incoming and outgoing logistics are reduced to a minimum, helping to reduce the pollutant emissions.

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

External collaboration: * 14 suppliers * 2 restaurants * Several purchasing groups * Discount agreements with several companies and organizations (GSK, Banco Popolare di Verona, …) * Partnership with several institutions in Verona Area. Numbers: * Total investment (from August 2013) = 40.000€ (34.000€ to implement the starting structure, circa 6.000€ in marketing) * Revenue > 50.000€ * Website subscriptions > 700 * Customers > 150 Qualitative: * Producers registered an increase in sales * Increased brand awareness of producers (they are now much more recognized from people in Verona) * Several old people or people with mobility problems use our service * Several business man thanks us for the chance to reach products difficult to be founded and to be able to purchase groceries very fast where and when they want.

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

The total investment needed (250k€) is referring to the implementation of a three years plan with the following main objectives: 1. Apparecchiato.it as the reference model of local grocery delivery; food e-commerce is the last evolution step of e-commerce, and still there is no dominant model. This is why it’s important to be in this business now trying to expand the market. 2. Open other 4 cities in the North-East of Italy leveraging the scalability of the model, in the meanwhile looking for other investors able to boost the expansion of the company in more cities. 3. Consolidation and saturation of Verona market. 4. Apparecchiato.it as a reference point for all the people interested in a healthy life, good eating, development of the territory, local economy sustainability and reduction of environmental impacts. 5. Higher brand awareness, giving to Apparecchiato.it brand a clear identity. The customer has to recognize this brand as the main Italian player in terms of fresh, quality and local food delivery with a high level of service.
Sustainability

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

The business model is easily scalable everywhere. Each area reach its breakeven point with only two overstocked vans, that corresponds to 80 orders per day, distributed over 6 days per week. The Verona area requires from 50k€ to 70k€ to glut its demand. Each new area requires about 100k€ for the set up and to be brought at its full capacity. It will be then financed out of the future revenues.

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

Big companies: * GoodEggs (Google), Farmigo, Relay Foods, Greenling, Amazon Fresh (US) * Waitrose, Tesco (UK) * Esselunga, Coop (IT) These companies apply technological innovation to the existing large retail model (Esselunga, Coop, Tesco), or have business models based on a classical logistic (warehouses). Direct competitors in the Italian market: * Cortilia (Milan) * Zolle (Rome) Both of them have a model based on warehouses or sorting point. Those models are also specifically studied for big cities.
Team

Founding Story

The idea started with the application to a business plan competition, called “Start Cup Giovani” (Youth Start Cup), a business plan competition among the Universities of Verona, Padova and Venice. We participated at the 2011 edition, and our project classified 2nd. We didn’d decide to immediately start with this business for several reasons (i.e. we didn’t considered the market ready for this innovations; we also had to complete our personal training: graduations, international experiences, work experiences,...). At the end of 2012 we reunited and, drawing an hypothetic network and business organization on a creased cappuccino napkin, we decided to start together with this venture. We still preserve that napkin.

Team

Enrico Bazzoni - Business Development Part time member Studies: - Management Engineering @ University of Padova - LLP Erasmus Program @ Norwegian University ST (N) Experience: - Simon-Kucher & Partners - Accenture Skills: - Marketing, sales and pricing - Process Management and Innovation - Analysis and reporting Davide Caporali - CEO, CFO Full time member Studies: - Economics, Administration @ University of Verona - LLP Erasmus Program @ Nottingham Trent University (UK) Experience: - PRM S.r.l. - Unicredit P&A Skills: - AFC and Business Planning - Networks management and development - Public relations Michele Mariotto - Business Development Studies: - Management Engineering @ University of Padova Experience: - Valorando S.r.l. - JEst Skills: - Information and innovation management - Operations - Project Management Sebastiano Pagani - CIO Studies: - Mechanic & Electronic Engineering @ University of Padova Experience: - STMicroelectronics Skills: - Automation - Machine language Luca Venturelli - COO Studies: - Literature @ University of Verona - LLP Erasmus Program @ Bristol University (UK) - Worldwide Study @ University of Western Ontario (CDN) Experience: - MrGO - Edinburgh Activity Centre Skills: - Contents creation - Social Media Marketing - Logistics AQuést S.r.l.: Italian web agency, leader in web platforms development and web-marketing strategies. They support Apparecchiato.it with reference to: * IT Development * Web Marketing * Design * Photo, video & Text Editing Valorando S.r.l.: consulting firm. They support Apparecchiato.it with reference to: * Management consulting * Advisory
About You
Organization:
Easysort S.r.l. – Apparecchiato.it
About You
First Name

Davide

Last Name

Caporali

About Your Project
Organization Name

Easysort S.r.l. – Apparecchiato.it

How long has your organization been operating?

1‐5 years

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Project
Organization Country

, Verona

Country where this project is creating social impact
What awards or honors has the project received?
Funding: How is your project financial supported?

Individuals, Businesses.

Supplemental
Sector

Sustainable Sourcing, Smallholder Farmers.

Audience: Who have you identified as your customer/recipient groups and do these groups value your solution for different reasons? How do you engage different customer/recipient groups to deliver your solution?

The market expresses a growing attention towards the following topics:

* Products (quality, freshness, traceability)

* Territorial enhancement

* Lowering of the environmental impact

In the last two years, the former hidden needs of a fast purchase (e-commerce) together with a comfortable and efficient service of home delivery are arising.

Apparecchiato.it offers a model understanding all of these topics, and giving an all-embracing solution.

We reach several customer segments, exploiting a marketing mix primarily composed by:

* Guerrilla marketing (several “shocking” activities aiming to fill the gap between customers and the product)

* Targeted ads and contents on social networks

* Social Events

* Local newspapers

* Local Radios

* Local Tvs

* Events sponsorship

* Google AdWords

* Contest with prizes

* Discount tickets

Scaling the solution: How would the prize money and publicity help you to achieve your objectives over the next two years?

The prize money would help us glut the demand in the Verona area, where we started from over a year ago. This would lead us to reach our breakeven point faster. At the same time, this could easily draw the attention of some kind of big investors interested in promoting this kind of business model and its underlying values.

Specifically, with the prize money we could put into practice the following actions:

1. Technology:

a. Advanced website, fully integrated with our logistic, analytics database, management software and administration software.

b. Smartphone application.

2. Logistics:

a. Optimized deliveries logistic software.

b. Mechanized order composition.

c. Real time deliveries and temperatures tracking system.

3. Market:

a. Marketing improvement all over Verona area.

b. Area marketing standardization (value offer and service).

c. New packaging design and features, with lower environmental impact.

The prize publicity could give us more exposure and so contribute to increase not only the sales, but also the subscriptions to our network and service. At the same time, also this element could induce some kind of investors in approaching our business in order to develop it faster and on an international scale.

Experience: Please provide examples of any previous entrepreneurial initiatives you have pioneered

The core team doesn’have direct entrepreneurial experiences. Anyway, the core team members have various and complementary experiences and competencies in several professional areas.

Our partners (Valorando and Aquest) count several entrepreneurial experiences, from the creation of their own businesses to the support to several startups during the last years.

Are you are eligible to attend the Accelerator event in Cambridge and subsequent events in London, UK in January, 2015?

yes

Will you require a visa to enter the UK?

Are you are a current Unilever employee?

Comments

Alexter Cook's picture

One of the good project for online eCommerce so far i have seen.

Rajeev Kumar's picture

Nice project, i was looking something similar to this. Good one.

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