Weeshop is changing the way consumers do their weekly grocery shop. With the objective of educating the consumer, Weeshop guides them on the healthiness, environmental sustainability and social impact of products and the production of packaged foods.
The Weeshop app integrates Scandit Smart Data Capture including augmented reality (AR) to provide consumers with this extra level of information as they scan products in-store. When not in-store, consumers can use the Weeshop app to research products, share information amongst the community and create shopping lists based on their preferences.
Scandit Smart Data Capture provided an outstanding improvement in both accuracy and speed compared to alternatives we tried and made sense for future-proofing the business.
Devin Visani, Co-founder and CEO, Weeshop
Until recently there had been no scientific method available to consumers that gave an objective score on how healthy or sustainable a food was. Nutritionists had identified a need for an app for their clients to make convenient and healthy choices.
Working with food technology experts and the Alma Mater Studiorum at the University of Bologna, Weeshop developed an algorithm that identifies the positive and negative characteristics of a product. A traffic light system is used that assigns a color to indicate a positive characteristic, no relevant data to report, or an intermediate or high risk. This system allows for one or more products to be grouped by their characteristics, allowing for analysis and quick comparisons between products which are displayed via an augmented reality overlay on the consumer’s smartphone.
Challenge
Consumers can use the app in several major Italian grocers so Weeshop needed to integrate a high performance scanning solution that was compatible with a wide range of smartphones. In addition, it needed to offer a fast and accurate solution regardless of the conditions such as poor in-store lighting or to cope with damaged barcodes. Weeshop had previously been working with an open source barcode scanning solution, however they found that it did not offer the level of accuracy or speed required.
Plus, once a barcode was scanned, AR functionality was required to display the additional information such as sustainability ratings – a capability not offered by the open source solution.
Solution
Working closely with the Scandit team, Weeshop integrated the Scandit Barcode Scanner SDK and MatrixScan AR to deliver a fast and accurate scanning solution in their app. Compatible on over 20,000 smartphone models, the Scandit Barcode SDK meant Weeshop were quickly able to roll out the app to users regardless of their device type ensuring a frictionless experience and encouraging repeat usage.
Weeshop Co-founder and CEO, Devin Visani, commented, “The process was very smooth and we did not have any integration issues at all. It was very easy from the SDK, to the dashboard controls, to the integration of the AR enhancement. It took just a few days for us to implement.”
Working with Scandit, Weeshop is the first to integrate AR functionality for consumer use in the Italian grocery market and with really positive feedback. Visani explains, “The feedback we had from our customers is like ‘wow’. The first time they try it they realize how good it is. As they can scan the products directly in real-time, the user experience is not interrupted which I think is revolutionary with respect to the basic scan.”
Results
By utilizing Scandit Smart Data Capture, Weeshop has empowered customers to understand the impact of their purchasing decisions in real-time.
Since fully launching the app at the start of 2022, Weeshop has seen over 30,000 downloads of their app and are on-track to reach their target of over 100,000 by the end of the year. Customers have been positive on their use of the app with a rating of 4.9 / 5 on the Apple App Store and 4.3 / 5 on the Google Play Store. Weeshop has also been able to more than double the number of products in their database since launching, providing consumers with an ever-increasing choice of products to check the sustainability or social impact.
Over 60% of the downloads to date have been generated organically such as through word of mouth. This has helped Weeshop lower their cost per install to just €0.22 against an industry benchmark of €0.98. Such cost efficiencies and their impressive growth rate help Weeshop continue to innovate and invest in the development of the app.
Future plans include introducing a customer reward program and adding push notifications, plus a playlist function to curate items based on expert advice from nutritionists. In addition, they are already starting to speak to major Italian grocers about integrating their functionality into the retailers’ apps to further grow their business and help educate more consumers on their health and sustainability choices. On working with Scandit, Visani concludes, “Working with Scandit was easy with good communication and a lot of trust. Compared to other scanning solutions, Scandit provided an outstanding technology difference by providing both efficiency and speed.”