29A- Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

Approximately 90% of American customers will share their customer service experiences with others. Of those American customers, those who are angry will share their negative experience with and give anti referrals to about 15 people. In other words, negative experiences within a store can be easily spread and cause a stores attendance rate and sales rate to decrease. In addition, 60% of American will not desire to connect with a sales associate until they have browsed, completed extensive research, and made up their mind about the product or products they would like to purchase. It is also important to note that 30% of American customers leave a store empty-handed because of poor customer service. 

Now, picture that you have a grueling week at work. Each day dragged on and you felt it was never going to end. As a form of therapy, you decide that when your work week is over you are going to go shopping. You walk into stores and you are approached by pushy employees that just want you to buy something. Instead of this being a relaxing time, you end up getting frustrated and give up on shopping. All in all, you hoped you would have some time to unwind from your bad week at work, but it made a turn when you could not leisurely walk through the stores without being approached and bothered.

The problem

The issue here is that employees are eager to make a sale and cause customers to have an unenjoyable experience. This unenjoyable experience ends up being a loss of a sale for the retail store. The people who have the unmet need are the stores that are suffering from a decline in sales. To be specific, the stores that are experiencing a loss in sales are the ones where the employees are advised by their managers and store owners to close a sale and interact with the customers.

These customers are having a hard time satisfying this need currently. They do not have anything in place to avoid pushing shoppers out of their stores. The only thing they are doing is being sure to be less forceful and approaching the shopper in a more relaxed way. This is not enough and is not getting rid of the problem because there are shoppers who prefer not to be approached at all.

This opportunity is rather large since there is not solutions in place for it yet. The window for this opportunity will be open until an efficient and simple solution is presented and put in place within the sales industry.

Innovation

The product that I believe can put an end to this problem within the sales industry is a system tailored to the store type. This system will consist two different items. One item will represent customers who are “open to help” and the other item will represent the customers who “do not want help.” This system will look different in all stores. The reason the system will be implemented differently in each store is because every store has its own style and sells different products.

For instance, in a clothing, shoe, or personal care store, the system would be two different colored bags. Bags would be used in this store because they are most convenient for the type of products sold in that store. A specific example would be Bath and Body Works. The type of products this store sells includes lotions, hand soaps, candles, car deodorizers, body soap, infused night lights, and scrubs. These items would be very difficult to hold especially if the shopper is wanting to purchase more than two products. The most convenient item to provide these customers would be a bag that they can carry over their shoulder. This bag would be visible to the employees and it would be a great signal on whether they should approach the shopper.

In a grocery store, my product would look more like two different colored carts. Carts are a good fit for a grocery store because shoppers will most likely have a rather large shopping list. A big would not be as convenient because it will get too heavy for the shopper to carry, especially if buying a pack of water or gallons of juice or milk.

Venture Concept

My innovation will address the opportunity in that it will allow customers to choose whether they want to be helped without a sales associate approaching them. This innovation will allow for more shoppers to leave a store happy and with a product. Also, it will generate more sales for stores and cause less employees to be scolded or sassed by shoppers.

Stores would be willing to invest in this innovation because they want to generate as much revenue as possible. I do not believe it will be hard to get the stores to buy my product because it is for the betterment of their business. All businesses want to flourish in sales and if my product has the ability to add to their sales, there would be no reason a business would not take advantage of this product.

To implement this custom system in a store, it will be a one-time fee of 500 dollars. There will be no flex pay options because it is just one fee. The only additional fees there will be is if the system needs repairing. For example, if a cart wheel falls off or a bag tears the repair price would depend on the problem.

My business will start with 20 employees and throughout time I will tailor the amount off employees based on the growth of the business.

Secret Sauce

The unfair advantage that I have that cannot be imitated or copied is my experience in sales. My experience allows me to obtain not only a shopper’s perspective, but a sales associate perspective. I have dealt with ample unhappy customers during my experience in sales, and I have noticed that most of the individuals just want more time to think about the product on their own. Knowing that customers want space and can make a decision about a product faster when alone, I feel the system I am implementing will be very beneficial for the stores to grow in sales.  I feel with this experience I was able to pinpoint a relevant and apparent problem people face, since I experience it first-hand.

What next?

My venture will continue to find businesses that will need our product that we did not launch to at first. In other words, after the business tends to grocery stores and retail stores, we will begin to expand our ideas to other sales focused businesses like gym studios, car dealerships, and insurance agencies.

What is next for me?

In five years, I would like to see my venture throughout the US, so that all stores can generate the best revenue they can, and all shoppers of the stores can have a stress-free experience in their stores. In ten years, I would like to have identified another unmet need and continue helping people with problems they face in their day to day life.

Feedback
I received mostly positive feedback. My peers really enjoyed that I used images throughout my venture concept and felt I put a lot of time and effort into this assignment. The only critical feedback I received was to go into more detail about the secret sauce I obtain because it can make my product even more convincing to the desired customer.

What I changed?
I started out by adding in an additional fact in the opening of my venture concept. I received a lot of positive feedback about including statistics, so I felt that adding in an additional supporting fact would make my venture concept even stronger. In addition, I added more to the secret sauce section. I discussed my sales experience further and included what I learned from my experience. I backed up my venture concept by proving I have skills that are transferable to the product I am producing. Thank you very much for the feedback!! It was very helpful and encouraging!