Bread and Milk from E-szop

Szczecinbiznes.pl: Why did you start an Internet grocery?

I got the idea already at university, on my last year on the European studies. I went to England for holidays and I saw what it is like there and how popular such shops are. Already then I considered it a very interesting and promising idea. But I decided to do something about it only at the end of my studies. Together with my boyfriend, we started analyzing the market and looking for new opportunities. It turned out that Szczecin had only one e-shop, which did not look encouraging. I thought that it could be done much better. Especially that I knew how it works in other Polish cities.

How much time and money did you need to start the business?

Preparation took a year. We had to get all necessary permits, e.g. from health inspectors, find a warehouse, create a website, prepare a list of products, etc. As far as money is concerned, it is definitely needed to let a warehouse. We applied for the premises to the Local Buildings Management and got a relatively cheap warehouse. You need a car suitable for the transport of food, equipped with cooling devices and some cash for the Internet site.

How about the purchases of goods for the shop?

At the beginning we had minimum stock as we could not assess whether and which products will be bought. We did not want to take a risk. We had some two thousand products on offer. We started co-operation with local entrepreneurs: bakery, vegetable supplier and wholesalers. We had it planned so that we wouldn’t have to carry huge stocks.

How do you manage your business now?

Now, what we have on stock are products that sell well. We can predict that because we have a group of regular customers with clear preferences. We also store long shelf-life products. Meat, vegetables, bakery products are delivered in the amounts ordered that day. We get them from a warehouse and local producers that we co-operate with on a special basis. We keep learning from our clients and we try to match the product range with their needs and expectations. We are often given suggestions which products we should have on offer. This way throughout a year our offer expanded to include nearly 4 thousand products.

What sells best?

Mainly food such as dairy products, meat, sugar and flour. Often clients buy large amounts of drinks, which are heavy, because they have them delivered to the door. We also have a group of clients looking for niche products, e.g. healthy food or gluten free products. Such products are ordered from all over the country.

Who are your clients?

Our target group was people aged 18-50. However, it turned out that many our clients are elderly people, pensioners, whose health prevents them from shopping, but who are Internet literate.

Another group includes young mothers who often buy baby food and baby care products. There are also many disabled persons. We were surprised with the interest we got from companies operating in Szczecin. We have a special offer for them – orders are delivered already in the morning. Among our customers there are people who want to send a surprise gift to their relatives or friends in Szczecin. To meet this demand our offer includes gift hampers.

We hoped that our shop will be more popular among wealthy people living on the outskirts of the city, who work long. This did not turn out quite as we though.

What problems did you encounter during the set-up and first year of your business?

At the beginning we had the biggest problems with learning dozens of rules and regulations to start a business, rules we knew nothing about before. It turned out that sometimes things are nowhere written down, so we had to look for information, make phone calls, inquiries. We haven’t envisaged everything. We thought that an intuitive website will be easy for everyone, that users will have no problem with signing in. It turned out that there is a number of customers who had never been using an Internet shop, so many things had to be simplified.

Did you try to get any financial or professional help?

There was an EU project implemented by the University of Szczecin. We didn’t manage to win the funds though, because of the early stage of completion of our project and tight deadlines. We didn’t have enough time and decided that we will try to do it on our own. We did consult the Business Incubator of the West Pomeranian University of Technology, which showed us e.g. how to manage the bookkeeping ourselves.

How did you win clients?

We ran our promotion campaign on the Internet and outside of it. First of all we had to position the website well, so that no potential client had problems with finding us. The next step was to reach people. We prepared posters and leaflets. The car itself is an advertisement. After several months we were being advertised on an Internet site and we are developing our Facebook profile.

You have been in the market for a year – how is your business performing?

We need to realize that e-groceries are only developing in our market. People are becoming familiar with this way of doing shopping. It’s not yet something that they use every day. This is why it’s developing more slowly than in Warsaw. Our beginnings were hard. Luckily, we have a large group of regular customers. We keep getting new customers, not only from Szczecin, but from all over the country. The business is earning money and expanding. However, we are still investing and growing. This is where most of our earnings go to.

How many orders do you get and what is your turnover?

Right now, we get on average 100 orders a month, but this number is going up every month. I would prefer not to talk about the turnover.

Do you have competition in Szczecin?

At the beginning there were two shops, but our offer was more attractive, so it wasn’t really a problem. We have recently got stronger competition, a branch of a shop from Warsaw. Therefore, we had to double our efforts in order to become more competitive. In Szczecin, the market is young and in future we will have to face at least several competitors.

How do you run your every-day business?

We have tried to share our tasks so that the company would be run effectively and clients would get their shopping on time. We have a designated person responsible for order management, customer services etc. and a person dealing with deliveries and contacts with the delivery men. We also use an on-going IT support – with this type of business we couldn’t do without it.

By: Łucja Pawłowska