Pet food delivery

[elanpro43]

@nyli3 This seems valid scepticism. Are you from India?Do you pay any delivery charges? If yes, would you be willing to order from some other website for same day delivery with no extra charges?
Bonus: you could subscribe to this and forget about reordering.

 

[nyli3]

@elanpro43 I live in the US (in a major city). I order through Amazon subscription. I usually have to change my shipping dates since I haven't exactly figured out how long my food supply lasts each time (when my supply runs low, I just change to ship earlier and vice versa).

 

[joshua55]

@elanpro43 I buy dog food when I'm out because I go to the grocery store every week anyway. I don't see how a service like this would be worth the hassle for me.

 

[613jono]

@elanpro43 If you do a subscription based model you could potentially do different types of subscriptions with different amount of food: 1 month 15 lb 2 month 30, etc

 

[elanpro43]

@613jono Yes exactly my point.

 

[lionofgod90]

@elanpro43 The business isn't in making money off free delivery unless the bag is inflated in cost. It's the delivery convenience. That's what all food delivery services do, mark up the cost of the food to absorb delivery or charge separately for delivery.

 

[angeshekinahh]

@elanpro43 OP, are you currently in India and planning to operate the business in India? That makes a huge difference in labor cost factors.

Also, consider that Amazon takes a 20% to 25% commission for items sold via Amazon marketplace. Additionally, a typical merchant cash advance or CC will charge between 15% and 29% interest. Lastly, Stripe charges about 3% for a CC transaction.

 

[elanpro43]

@angeshekinahh Yes I am from and planning to operate this out of India. Cash on Delivery /Paytm (a huge payments startup) is very big in India which do not eat up transaction costs, this dramatically changed the playing field.
To answer your other question, I wouldn't sell via Amazon, this would be a website/telephone service where a customer could book thru web or call.
Thus, obviously there'd be some initial marketing costs.

 

[alicehaynes]

@elanpro43 You should probably edit this to say you are in India where cost of living and delivery systems work somewhat differently. I think people are assuming you're in the states.

 

[elanpro43]

@alicehaynes Yes. I updated the post. Thanks.

 

[hlcorn3]

@elanpro43 Read some of the comments.

I would:

-Get better prices on bulk pet food. This can be done by networking, I guarantee you you’re still overpaying
-Charge higher prices, people use an app called “Wag” here just to have their dogs walked. A friend of mine made $1,200 in a weekend.. from walking dogs. It may seem expensive to you but sometimes, it’s not much to people willing to pay for it

 

[elanpro43]

@hlcorn3

1. Applying for a distributors license would be the next thing if I get validation that the model is working. This would get me margins to the tune of 25%.
2. Dog walking isn't yet a thing in India yet.

 

[aminganancy]

@elanpro43 Chewy.com?

 

[elanpro43]

@aminganancy Not in India. We only have Amazon.

 

[suzsim1985]

@elanpro43 Contact distributors for whole sale pricing

 

[docwhyte]

@elanpro43 It’s a good idea but I don’t think that margin will work tbh

 

[elanpro43]

@docwhyte The margin shouldn't work to support my bills. This would really be a MVP to see if could scale with such thin margins. If yes, then a larger margin would make sense by applying for a distributors license.
Also, I am from India where the delivery boy's salary would be $120-150 per month and believe me he'd be fairly paid.

 

[babszie]

@elanpro43 No one mentioned pets.com? Famous failed internet startup.

How about a network of delivery drivers you outsource to any company that needs delivery. So sell to the pet food startup, the new pizza place, the shoe repairman, etc etc.

 

[elanpro43]

@babszie I'd give a look to Pets.com.

The delivery thing from restaurants is already being done on a large scale. There's Rocket Internet's Food Panda, Uber Eats, and Swiggy which recently received a $1 Billion in funding.

 

[davemalyon]

@elanpro43 I think you'd need research on how you'd warehouse products and mean distance from your organization. You'd NEED to be really close to your clients for this to work.

I'd definitely try and roll this up with another service. Can you also provide walks/baths to pets? Play time? Grooming?

Delivery seems like an awesome upsell but very much different business than other pet services.