Our Process
We are a group of entrepreneurs studying Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Twente. We came up with the product service system VitDaily as a result of the project Virtual Product Development.
ReStock
The initial problem that inspired us to start developing this product service system was that people often run out of stock that they keep at home. We surveyed a group of people to find out what kinds of products they keep in stock at home and which of those products they often accidentally run out of. Some examples of these include trash bags, toilet paper, bread, and supplements. Our initial idea was to develop a system with boxes in which people can store these products at home. These boxes would recognize when they almost run out and (semi)-automatically order these items again. We thought of developing that system under the name ReStock, however, we pivoted into a more specific direction.
Pivot
We found that a lot of the products that we would cover, like bread and trash bags, come in their own packaging and people like to store them in that packaging instead of having all kinds of separate boxes. We also found that these products are all quite cheap products, so there is not a lot of margin on it. This combined with the fact that we would need a lot of investment to produce and distribute all kinds of different shapes and sizes of boxes to fit the needs of different product categories, made us reconsider that idea.
We found that by focusing on vitamins and supplements, throughout this website referred to as vitamins, we would enter a market with quite high margins on products, as well as being able to provide a storage solution that would get rid of all separate and different-sized packaging. Further, by focusing on a more specific target group, we could provide more tailored information and create a community of people with the same interests.
VitDaily
That is how VitDaily was born. We saw that the market for vitamins is quite chaotic with a lot of different sellers. By combining ourselves with partners we could create some order in this market. We specifically focused on vitamins and not medicine because that is a very regulated market with very powerful companies.
Because of this chaotic market, we also think people would profit if we provided information about vitamins that are specifically tailored to them.
If people want to use various kinds of vitamins and they must take these multiple times per day, they always must be aware that they take the right pots of vitamins with them when they leave their home. This is specifically a problem when they go traveling. By storing all their vitamins in the VitDaily, this problem is solved by being able to take everything they need in one small and well-designed form factor.
If people have multiple types of vitamins, it can also happen easily that they run out of one kind. This is also a problem that we can tackle by tracking the number of pills that are still in storage and (semi-)automatically ordering new vitamins.
We can also help people by giving them reminders through an app so that they do not forget to take their vitamins. In this same app, they can also keep track of their vitamin intake.
