We are an online, bulk buying club. Customers can save up to 50% on their favourite brands compared to the supermarkets. We charge an annual subscription of £24, but this includes free delivery. The subscription is not charged until the customer has saved £48 compared to their usual supermarket, so there is no risk. Every customer is asked to nominate their usual supermarket and we compare the price of each of our products to the chosen supermarket. We sell ambient goods only at this stage. |
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We currently sell over 1,500 branded products through our website. This will increase to over 2,000 as we increase our range with organic and “free from” lines. Every shopper is asked to nominate their usual supermarket. Once this has been done, every time they look at a product on our website, we show the saving compared to their chosen supermarket. Typical savings are £45 on a £115 basket.
The 2 fastest growing grocery markets in the UK are Online and the Discounters (Aldi, Lidl). The recession has conditioned shoppers to look for the best deals and shopping online is seen as being more convenient than shopping in-store. BuyMucho.com addresses both of these issues: Price and convenience. We compare our prices to the major supermarkets and show how much consumers can save buying in bulk from us. They have the convenience of shopping online and having the goods delivered to their door.
Bulk buying is not new. Cosctco turns over £1.6bn in the UK, but has a limited online presence. Their model is to drive customers in-store, however inconvenient that may be.
The business model is volume dependent – we will lose money initially, until we have the scale to secure cheaper product sourcing.
We have two income streams. The primary one is a recurring revenue model from the annual subscription. Using the subscription revenue to underpin our business, allows us to work off of very low margins and undercut the supermarkets. However, as the business grows, so will our buying power and we will be able to deliver additional margin from the sale of products. Once we become established in each country, we will then be in a position to add tertiary brands which will offer incremental margin, over and above the established brands.
Our exit strategy is based upon either a trade sale or IPO. The former is likely to be to a large supermarket chain such as Walmart or Ocado. Or it could be to Amazon or a large wholesaler, such as Booker who may be looking to exploit their wholesale expertise in a B2C environment.
Another option is that we offer a partial exit via a trade sale of the UK business, prior to expanding globally. It is not inconceivable that some of the UK companies mentioned above might make an offer for our business once we have taken off. We could potentially use some of the proceeds to fund our expansion into Europe and beyond.