A couple of months ago I started subscribing to a weekly basket of Eco friendly groceries. The Danish company Årstiderna has expanded its operations to Sweden and Swedish consumers are now offered a number of Eco friendly mini-crates of groceries online delivered weekly at your doorstep.
The concept combines some interesting selling points:
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online ordering and selection.
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delivery at your doorstep.
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Eco friendly produce.
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niche offering (fruits, veggies and assorted fish) – almost a long tail offer.
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cost of between 16-25 euro per box depending on content.
Below is a screen shot of how you choose on a weekly basis what you want delivered at your door step. The supplier has a savvy approach to inventory management in that it offers a type of basket without specifying the exact content. So you never really know exactly what you are getting from one week to another.
The site and offering is presented in an attractive way with clear price points and colorful descriptions. Although you need to be logged in to order, login, product selection and payment are relatively simple processes.
Now to the problem. My expectations on this premium Eco fruit and veggies play were very high. I didn’t expect a mini jungle delivered to my door step by a native indian from South America, but I did expect a unique selection of the best quality that money could buy. Although the idea, model and execution works very well, I am not satisfied with the product. The quality of the goods are too close to what I find in my regular supermarket. And the lack of choice means that I have a warehouse of carrots in my fridge since Årstiderna chose to replace last weeks cabbage with carrots again. Yesterday I cancelled my weekly deliveries.
No matter how good your execution is online you got to get your product right. Most features of online plays (logistics, payment etc) tend to commoditize. So if Årstiderna doesn’t differentiate the product itself better (Eco is not enough), then they will end up selling a commodity in a commoditized way.
