- Università: SDA Bocconi Asia Center
- Docenti:
Sandro Castaldo
- Studenti:
Madhura Kulkarni, Meet Parikh, Pranshu Pandey, Sahana Ghosh, Sahitya Murali, Sirsha Chowdhury
The degree to which the world uses energy has widespread consequences, not just for us, but also for our future generations. The damage caused to the environment due to mankind’s ambitious and industrious drive is alarming. China (10M metric tons), the United States (5M metric tons) and India (2M metric tons) are the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide in the world as of 2019. Although USA has decreased its emissions, both China and India’s carbon emissions have increased significantly in the last decade. It is imperative that we do our bit to preserve Earth as we know it.
KILOwhat is a modern department store selling fresh food, apparel, home appliances and electronics. It uses technology to generate electricity from the mechanical vibrations caused by shoppers walking around, which will be used to power the store. A wall feature located in the centre of the store will show how much electricity has been generated per day in real time, and interactive displays to explain the mechanism of energy generation will be strategically placed. Arcade games (such as Dance Dance Revolution) will help increase the amount of energy generated that will in turn help us meet our power demands. Customers visiting our store can download the KILOwhat app on their mobile devices to check how much electricity they generated in relative terms, and can share their contributions on Social Media platforms to encourage others to make a change too. This will convert to store points that can be redeemed using unique barcodes visible on the respective devices.
Market Analysis
The Retail sector in India accounts for over 20% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and contributes 8% to total employment. In 2016, the total market size was estimated to be around US$ 672B, registering a CAGR of 7.74% since 2000. The penetration of modern retail is expected to increase from 12% in 2017 to 22%-25% in 2021, according to the 2016 Deloitte report. It is further expected to witness a CAGR of more than 10% in the period of 2016-2021, to reach a size of INR 85T by 2021.
Targeting
Our targets are the general everyday home shopper and the environmentally conscious customer who strives towards living a sustainable lifestyle. They are primarily graduate level educated working professionals within the age bracket of 25 to 45 years, living in Delhi. There is no gender bias. Another section of customers who will be attracted to our store concept are people who enjoy new experiences and international tourists or frequent travellers who are looking for novel non-touristy adventures.
Kinetic tiles that are piezoelectric will be used to convert mechanical vibrations of footsteps into electricity. We will be partnering with a company that specializes in this. A single footstep will generate enough energy to power one LED bulb for 30 seconds, and multiple such kinetic tiles lining the floor of the KILOwhat store will allow us to keep up with the energy demand. However, the energy produced will not be sufficient to power the entire store. We will still be drawing electricity from the grid but will incorporate solar energy panels in the future to be energy sufficient.
Store location
KILOwhat will be in the heart of Delhi, India. With a total population of 29M in 2020, Delhi is second only to Tokyo with a population of 37M. The population of Delhi is expected to increase to nearly 39M by 2030, leaving Tokyo behind. With respect to its domestic counterparts, Delhi has the largest population (28.5M), with Mumbai coming second (20M). With a GDP of USD 293.6B in 2018, and 29.6M international arrivals (sixth place globally) in Delhi in 2019, Delhi is the best location to launch KILOwhat. Coupled with all of this, Delhi is constantly striving to be a more sustainable city, which is an important factor in ensuring high traffic to our store. KILOwhat is a store open from 10 am in the morning to 10 pm at night all days of the week in keeping with the metropolitan lifestyle of Delhi.
Communication
The launch of KILOwhat will be in the form of a competition, “The KILOwhat Challenge”, where customers will be welcomed to walk around the store to get an idea of the shopping experience and generate electricity through their footsteps. Visitors will be encouraged to download the app to get loyalty points on their purchase. The top 10 winners who contribute to the highest power generation according to our wall feature and recordings on their respective apps will be rewarded a 30% discount. Advertising will be done on Social Media platforms and billboards across the city. Social Media influencers will also be invited to visit KILOwhat to capture the shopping experience and concept of our store.
