An IoT device + replenishment subscription service that re-orders goods automatically when you run low, rather than on a fixed time schedule.
Categories: IoT, Consumer Goods, Hardware, mobile app development
Skills required: Basic knowledge of hardware, ordering management software, drop-shipping or e-commerce
The Pitch & Background
Subscription services for physical goods are great.
Hate going to the store every time you run out of toilet paper, or your razor goes dull? Throw it on a subscription and you never have to worry - it just comes automatically on a time schedule.
It’s a great alternative to having to consciously manage your inventory of essential household supplies.
The only problem is that subscriptions are time-based rather than consumption based.
I currently have four hundred kitchen garbage bags that came from an Amazon subscription. I have three cases of Huel (~6 months supply) because I forgot to pause the subscription while I was away for a few months. Woops.
Does anyone accurately know how often they need to replenish their supply of wet wipes, shampoo, or coffee beans? I’d bet 99.9% of us don’t.
In many ways, subscriptions that are time-based just trade the inconvenience of last minute trips to the store for the inconvenience of having to manage your subscriptions. It’s still not a perfect system to solve the problem.
Enter the next era of subscriptions: Superscriptions are customized to your consumption, and re-order items exactly when you need them.
No more over-stocking (or worse, under-stocking). No subscription management. Go away for a month, or go on a binge. It doesn’t matter. It just shows up before you even knew you needed it. Free up your brain to worry about more important things - like what to watch next on Netflix.
All you need is a device that automatically tracks your usage, and re-orders your items when you hit a critical threshold.
This is the true “set it and forget” experience we are heading towards.
Order the monitoring device(s) upfront, set your preferences, and you’re done. How easy is that?
Imagine, as a consumer, if you never had to think about ordering things like:
Toilet paper and paper towel
Shampoos and soaps
Cleaning supplies
Baking staples like sugar or flour
Condiments and spices
Coffee and tea
Snack foods and other dry good staples
Alcohol and other controlled substances
Anything that you re-order on a sporadic schedule can be put on a superscription.
From a business standpoint, how loyal is a customer who makes one buying decision upfront, and then never thinks about it again? How valuable is it to be able forecast re-orders at a near-perfect level of precision?
This StartThis is definitely not a matter of if but when.
In 10-20 years, the idea that people manually tracked and controlled the ordering of their household food and supplies will seem as ridiculous as the idea that people used to wash their clothes by hand.
Strategy & Execution Notes
You may be thinking the device to support this requires some high tech solution - one that is kind of against the rules of StartThis. After all, it’s no fun if an idea requires some technology that doesn’t exist yet, or is inaccessible to the masses. But don’t worry, this solution is technically very simple, and ready for anyone to put together!
It needs three readily accessible, low cost components: a simple electronic scale/pressure sensor, a low power Bluetooth chip, and a long-life battery (or direct power connection). Put those into a simple casing the size of a coaster, and you have an easy way to to track consumption of any good. All you need to trigger “just in time” ordering that feels like magic.
The pressure sensor serves to capture changes in weight over time. The Bluetooth chip transmits the weight information to Bluetooth-enabled devices within range (like a cellphone or Alexa/Google Home device). The battery provides the low amount of power needed for this to happen.
You need a basic mobile or Alexa app that the consumer installs in order to relay the data to your order management system so you can track consumption and trigger orders. Everything else is your standard e-commerce setup. To keep it simple, you can even drop-ship the orders at first.
Start with a niche product category that has reasonable margins, and where consumers experience a high level of pain when they run out. Personally, I like coffee or spices for this, but if you’re comfortable balancing a few regulatory hurdles, legal cannabis is also a prime candidate. For coffee or cannabis, you would want to create an airtight cylinder storage container with the monitoring device built-in to the bottom. For spices, you might consider creating a “spice board” with half a dozen spots for spice jars that can monitor the six different weights.
Generate some pre-orders from Kickstarter and other crowd-funding, so that you can get your first run of devices made. At scale, you’ll likely be able to sell the devices at a loss, given the value of the recurring product orders, but that’s not necessary out of the gate.
From a marketing standpoint, capitalize on the true auto-pilot experience. It’s like having a robot butler to keep your pantry and cleaning supply closet stocked. You can start with a niche, but if you want to go for a bigger land grab, create a brand that isn’t automatically associated with one product category. Amazon started with books, but Bezos deliberately chose a name that wouldn’t let him be pigeon-holed into only ever selling one thing. Follow the playbook of emerging brands like Fast.co to create a consumer brand around convenience and freedom.
While this StartThis would certainly take some planning, it is a rare opportunity to wedge into a new trend that is absolutely going to explode in the next decade.
Data & Research
According to a survey conducted by McKinsey, only 13% of consumers are actively subscribed to a replenishment subscription service. On the other hand, those that do use these services have lower churn than other subscription types.
I’m not an expert in hardware, but I am 100% certain the components for this are all readily available on sites like Alibaba at a very low cost. It also may be possible to use a piezoelectric sensor, and eliminate the need for a battery altogether.
Name Ideas
Superscription.com (owned but not parked), Rosie.io (Rosie was the Jetson’s robot butler), something specific to the category you start with.
Would you use this service? Share your thoughts!