An online grocery “crowdsourced marketplace” – which allows shoppers to compare prices between multiple wholesalers and suppliers and have items delivered directly from them – has launched with 15,000 listings.
Kiuki.com – the brainchild of Tiago Pita, the e-commerce director of ingredients supplier Whole Food Earth – says its ambition is to make grocery shopping on the site “faster than anywhere else” for customers.
That speed will come from conversational AI tools, currently in development, through which customers can build baskets and “ask to order ingredients for a recipe that aligns with your diet”. Shoppers will also be able to start chatting with Kiuki on WhatsApp, and ask for any product to be ordered.
“I have been developing the software for a few years as a side project,” Pita told The Grocer. “A few brands, such as Mighty Plants and Vegan Kind, have used it before, and we decided that it should be available as a platform for everyone.”
The site has already signed deals with wholesalers CLF and Dandies, as well as specialist retailers such as The Good Grocer, Vegan Kind, Happy Beans, La Fauxmagerie and Harmless Market.
Pita said for its featured brands, Kiuki charged a flat 15% fee on sales, unlike bigger online grocery stores where this figure “can easily pass 50%” which was simply “not profitable for small brands”.
“That’s why our suppliers offer very competitive prices, and brands make more money on our platform,” Pita said. “In the medium and long term, we believe that will result in higher-quality products for lower prices. We are reinventing the supply chain.”
For some listings, it is the brand that creates its product page, with wholesalers and suppliers adding their best price and deals to it. In other cases wholesalers list all their available SKUs when they sign up.
Pita said the platform served as “not just a traditional e-commerce website but a marketing platform for brands”.
The company is now seeking investment to scale the business, in particular the onboarding of brands and suppliers.
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