Business Idea: E-Billing Trolley at Grocery Stores

Question

Task Description
The objective of this individual assessment submission is to learn how to develop a business idea, complemented by brainstorming and leveraging the insights and skillsets of others. Assessment comprises two parts: Please submit a 5-page briefing paper of your business idea, its essential business model components, and aspects that will influence its success. A business model canvass can be included as an appendix.

The second part of the assessment is how constructively and collaboratively you have worked with others during the workshops scheduled for Assessment 2.

Writing a 5-page (1500-words) document is possible if you follow these tips:

Format this as a BUSINESS REPORT format (Title Page; Table of Contents, Executive Summary; Body (Sections); Conclusion; Appendices; and References).
Dedicate a half-page to the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (This is essentially frames your approach, what you found, and what your conclusions are). In some ways, think of this as your 'pitch' to the reader.
HOW MANY PAGES?!! Look to the five (Task) questions. Think of these as roughly a page each when you are writing. You may choose to reduce or elaborate on some questions given the weighting of assessment on each.
Let's look at the ORDERING OF THE SECTIONS (or task questions).
As I said in the recorded briefing on the assignment, you might choose to change the order of addressing the questions so that the sections run as Q1 (Customer/market problem), then Q 2 (Argue the benefits of your idea to solve the problem), then Q5 (Feasibility) followed by Q3 (Business Model) then Q 4 (Critical Success Factors). I think this arrangement has a logic to it that flows better. Please listen to my recorded briefing if you haven't already done so (it's in the Assessment 2 folder).
Use APPENDICES to provide additional depth on aspects that you have discussed in the five task questions. This means you will have an appendix for the Business Model, one for the Feasibility Screen (there are two pages uploaded to the Assessment 2 tab that you can print out, write on, scan, and include in the one document), and one that comprises a page each for the respective contributions from members on your team (more about this below). And others that you think support the points you make in your discussion (such as the market problem or consumer research).

Answer

Executive summary
With the rise in the technology and due to the new invention in certain fields like machine learning, internet of things and so on, there is also an increase in the expectation level of the customers as well. In this fast-moving world, consumers are becoming more conscious regarding their schedule and didn’t want to waste time in the local markets. Rather, they prefer to visit malls, where everything is available at an affordable price. But, purchasing various items from one place requires a trolley, which resolves much of your burdens. However, getting the bills and finding things in the supermarket becomes difficult due to the wide variety of options.

At the end, users have to wait in the long queue and pay the amount, overcome the huge traffic to get a particular thing, and didn’t find the exact thing they were searching for. So, smart trolleys are introduced in the malls, which have advance function like automatic bills receipts, helps you in finding direction and guides you in the entire process.

Introduction
In today's world, the most valuable thing is time, and customers prefer those things which usually take less time. Most of the marketplace, especially the shopping malls are over-crowded as the shopping in a mall is considered as a daily activity in most of the metro cities. One can observe huge rush at the shopping centers, mainly on the holidays and weekends. As per Aagaard(2013), people keep on purchasing the items until they are satisfied and happy with their shopping activities(Aagaard, 2013). They put the things in the trolley and go to the billing counter for the payment. At the billing counter, cashier prepares the bill for each customer, which takes 5-10 minutes. The process of billing in the mall is difficult and consumes much of the time as customers have to wait in the long queue for the billing.

Furthermore, customers are nowadays busy in selecting items due to the wide variety of options available in the shopping malls. This again consumes much of the time and the process is regarded as a tedious work and yet the waiting time in the counter remains high. Therefore, Chen, Wu &Miausaid that the idea of this report is to develop an intelligent system, which aims to minimize the waiting time, lowers the manpower expenses and requirement for the markets, will help in finding the things at various locations and much more(Chen, Wu &Miau, 2015). Technology is playing a major role and helps in replacing the ways people used to follow in earlier days, and the future of the retail industry is in the hands of the more and more advanced and automated devices. One of the most advanced devices in the present situation is the smart trolley, which is fitted with an iPad. IPad helps in detecting the direction, helps in generating the bills and also reduces much of the human efforts during the shopping.

Customer/market problem
The shopping mall is one of those places in the city where people are getting their daily necessities, which starts from the foods products to the clothes, electrical appliances to customer service, and much more. According to Cooper (2015), official shopping centers are considered as one or more building, which is forming a complex structure with some interconnected walkways, and this enables the customers to walk from one part to the other(Cooper, 2015). And, these complex structures of the malls are quite confusing, and customers waste much of their time in searching even for the pretty things. Users nowadays didn’t prefer to visit the local shops as they believe that shopping malls are more reliable and cheap. They needn’t have to spend much time on the counters to find a particular thing, but, this is not happening exactly. Due to the wide variety of options people are confronting now, puts them in dilemma to choose the best one. So, the searching becomes tedious and customers didn’t get what they were searching for.

Despite its ubiquity, a storm of global fashion and trends are coming up together to cause some changes in the people's lives. Gone are those days when people were focusing on the traditional shopping methods. Nowadays, consumers visit the malls; look for the experiences, which are beyond the traditional methods and formats. Previously, people were waiting in the long queue and didn't have any complaint regarding those situations. Rather, they were enjoying their time with friends and families and were doing the shopping for long hours. But, this is somehow changed now due to the boisterous lifestyle and work pressure.

Customers are hardly getting some time to do the shopping, and even if they find time to do so, they didn't prefer to wait in the long queue to do the billing(Dahiya &Gayatri, 2018). As per Dhauta& Kapoor (2017), customers usually get confused while choosing the things due to the large area and availabilities. So finding and selecting the things in the shopping malls are regarded as a dreary act and customers always desire for some alternatives to get out of those situations (Dhauta& Kapoor, 2017). Thus, waiting in the bill counter for long hours and purchasing of unmatched items are some of the frequent issues customers are dealing with.

Benefits of the smart trolley with iPad
In this technology-prone era, the time has alternatively become money. Thus, people don't want to waste their time in the shopping, which is, of course, an evitable work. So, customers prefer malls as they believe that shopping complexes will contain all the necessary items or products at one place, and the billing system will be easy. According to Godin (2015), when the billing process is easy and reliable, then much of their time is saved and people can enjoy their weekends instead of spending much time in the billing queue. Due to the advancement in the technology, average problems of the users are solved now (Godin, 2015). Most of the users were facing the issues while selecting the products as there were too many stores which carry similar types of products, long queue in the billing counter and much more. The smart trolley, which is fitted with iPad ( as shown in appendix I), is therefore used in most of the shopping mall as it minimizes the time to find the products, helps in doing the billing and provide the direction for you while choosing the specific product.

The iPad is the new forms of the technology, which are attached to sensors, RFID implementations, and automatic recognition. These above implementations in the smart trolley are helping the customers as well as the cashiers to calculate the bills easily and to minimize the challenges that are faced by people previously. RFID implementation is quite useful and far better than the traditional barcode system. There are varieties of usage of the smart trolley such as users can now find the list of the products on their iPad along with the location where they are placed (Godin, 2017). Moreover, this helps customers to balance their budget as the smart trolley will sum up all the items that are placed inside the trolley within no time and you can remove those items which are costly or already purchases.

Besides this, consumers no need to stand in the long queue with a bag full of items as the bills will be generated automatically with the smart application before you go out of the mall. The speed of the service will be faster and customers can get enough time to visit other stores as well. Users can get the direction for what they were searching for in the mall, which again speeds up their shopping process (Lauto, et al., 2013). The payment with the smart trolley can also be done with the credit card, which reduces the efforts of standing in the queue to pay for the goods. Thus, smart trolley reduces the traffic or jams in the stores, helps the consumers to get into the store easily and out of it efficiently and quickly as well.

Business model
This business model will continuously revolve around the technology as iPad would be fitted with the smart trolley to do the shopping effectively and quickly. This new step in the shopping complexes not only reduces the headache of the customers but helps the management team while doing the billing, reduces human efforts and mainly decreases the huge traffic in the counters. Amidst in several challenges, shopping malls always seek to stay efficient, relevant and desires to enhance their popularity by boosting up their services and functions (Lokhande, 2015). Thus, the smart trolleys are providing the ultimate level of satisfaction and convenience by motivating the customers, reducing manpower in the billing sections and much more. Furthermore, users can get the exact information regarding their billing during the time of purchase.

Due to the use of this smart trolley, management team of the shopping malls are also getting benefits as they are getting some space and time to ask about their service and products to the customers, asks them for genuine feedbacks, tells them about their new arrivals, and mainly helps the staffs who are at the billing counters. The management team, therefore, gets some time to focus on other things such as they start to focus more on customer's service and finds new ways to fulfill the requirements within the stipulated time(O'leary, et al., 2014).

Critical success factors
Technology is the main reason behind this success. Smart trolley, which is fitted with the iPad makes the process easy and reliable, thus by increasing customer's satisfaction to ultimate levels. One of the most critical success factors from the entire process will be time. The time will be saved in various sections such as while doing the billing in the counters, finding the direction and receiving information. The automatic billing at the trolley will reduce the traffic in the billing counter.

As per Pitman (2016), customers can get all the details of the products at the time of shopping, and they need have to take proper training regarding this as the process is quite simple and easy(Pitman, 2016). Moreover, this process helps the staffs from repetitive checkout and scanning. Therefore, management team gets enough time to focus on their flaws and try to reduce them in the future. They also seek feedbacks from the customers regarding their services and try to implement them as well. Reducing manpower and saving the time of customers are some of the best things about the smart trolley in the shopping malls(Roos& O'Connor, 2015). Apart from this, the chances of manual errors will be reduced and users can get the exact details of the products. IPad will help in calculating the bills and provides the accurate amount without any mistake and errors(Weis, 2014).

Feasibility
According to Rötzel& Lohmann (2014), in this fast-paced era, technology is considered as the main factor for every single change. In order to stay up-to-date with the trends, one needs to learn everything and must possess basic knowledge regarding the changes occurring in the society. Moreover, iPad is one of the most talked devices in the industries due to a wide range of benefits and success factors (Rötzel& Lohmann, 2014). People are aware of its functionalities and applications, so they didn't find any difficulties while operating it. IPad in the smart trolley is helping the customers to do their shopping quickly and effectively, reduce the time of billing and minimizes manpower as well (Sukhov, Magnusson & Olsson, 2015). Even if the Consumers Weekly Grocery Shopping Trips in US is quite high this makes this idea feasible as shown in Appendix II.

Conclusion
The use of the iPad in the trolley makes it more user-friendly by displaying the name of the product, cost of the products, calculates the entire bills and saves the time as well. Furthermore, the traffic in the counter is reduced to the huge extent, and this leads to minimize the manpower. Considering the challenges in the retail shops, intelligent shopping tools such as iPad fitted trolley are certainly the best option to increase the customer's experience by reducing time and efforts.

References
Aagaard, A. (2013). A theoretical model of supporting open source front end innovation through idea management. International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 7(4), 446-465.

Chen, S. C., Wu, C. C., &Miau, S. (2015). Constructing an integrated e-invoice system: the Taiwan experience. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 9(3), 370-383.

Cooper, R. G. (2015). The S tage?G ate® Product Innovation System: from Idea to Launch. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-13.

Dahiya, R., &Gayatri. (2018). A Research Paper on Digital Marketing Communication and Consumer Buying Decision Process: An Empirical Study in the Indian Passenger Car Market. Journal of Global Marketing, 31(2), 73-95.

Dhauta, S., & Kapoor, S. (2017, February). Interactive intellegent shopping cart using RFID and ZIGBEE modules. In I-SMAC (IoT in Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud)(I-SMAC), 2017 International Conference on (pp. 764-769). IEEE.

Godin, B. (2015). Innovation contested: the idea of innovation over the centuries (Vol. 98). Routledge.

Godin, B. (2017). Models of innovation: the history of an idea. MIT Press.

Lauto, G., Valentin, F., Hatzack, F., & Carlsen, M. (2013). Managing front-end innovation through idea markets at Novozymes. Research-Technology Management, 56(4), 17-26.

Lokhande, P. S. (2015). Smart electronic billing.

O'leary, D., D'agostino, V., Re, S. R., Burney, J., & Hoffman, A. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,694,425. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Pitman, K. (2016). Public library innovation: Idea Stores-so last century.

Roos, G., & O'Connor, A. (2015). The idea of integrating innovation: Entrepreneurship and a systems perspective. University of Adelaide Press.

Rötzel, P. G., & Lohmann, C. (2014). The influence of the perception of fairness on innovation idea value and knowledge sharing behavior in innovation idea networks.

Sukhov, A., Magnusson, P. R., & Olsson, L. E. (2015). A conceptual model of the idea construct in innovation contexts. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2015, No. 1, p. 17256). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Appendices I

E-Billing Trolley at Grocery Stores