Interview with Shopplett - Your personal grocery shopper

Shopplett is an online platform where the customer can order groceries from its favorite bakery, butcher or supermarket,... A personal shopper does the groceries and delivers them where and when the customer wants them. It's a win-win situation for the customer, shopper, and the local merchant.

Nightborn's goal was to help Shopplett digitize the "grocery industry" compared to how we know it today.

Nikita, thank you for joining us today to tell us a little bit about yourself.

Nice to meet you! I'm Nikita, full of ambition, enthusiasm, and energy. Always open to connecting with new people.

Graduated as a business engineer, and with an extra Master in International Management & Strategy, I was ready to kick some ass at work. I'm currently following a Management Traineeship at Brussels Airport Company.

However, the crisis brought another opportunity: Shopplett.

💡 You can find more details about Nikita's qualifications, employment history, education, skills, and experience on her 👉LinkedIn profile 👈.

I read on your LinkedIn page that you are the Co-Founder, what is your day-to-day function in the company?

In April of last year, I founded Shopplett. But, since running a startup on my own was difficult at first, I quickly sought out reinforcements in the form of a co-founder. After a long search, I eventually met Viktor Van Eeckhoudt.

Viktor is mainly concerned with the company's operational and financial aspects while,  I'm primarily responsible for day-to-day management, marketing, and sales.

What sparked your idea to set up a web application?

As previously mentioned, I currently work for the airport, but due to Covid, I ended up at 30% temporary unemployment. Since I'm still too young to just sit at home and do nothing, I started asking myself "What is a problem that I regularly experience in this society?", "What bothers me?"

That's how Shopplett came about. I found it annoying that it wasn't possible to do groceries at different shops, bakeries, butchers,… And apparently, I wasn't the only one who experienced this as a tricky issue. You can use Shopplett to place several orders at multiple shops. These groceries can be picked up at once, depending on your personal shopper.

To give shape to my idea, I enrolled in the "Bryo StandUp" and "Bryo Bootcamp" programs, a VOKA course. They assist young entrepreneurs in developing business ideas. In group, we finalized my idea and looked for an elaboration.

What do you think are the biggest challenges that Shopplett will face in the next five years?

In the future, I'd like to scale up quickly. Shopplett's current focus is still on my own region, the Brussels suburbs. We'll be able to expand to other cities once that's been completed properly. We had to wait a long time for the government to grant us Peer 2 peer recognition, but we finally got it.

Over the next five years, we want to be active in a number of European countries, adjusting to local cultures and needs as required. Since shopping is a universal activity that is not limited to big cities, such as Uber.

We believe that once the lockdown is lifted, things will be much better than they are now. Everyone was reluctant to come out during the first lockdown. Now everyone has time, shopping is seen as a break from homework. People have more time to prepare a shopping list or go shopping. When the 'rush' of normal life returns, we believe Shopplett will be even more popular. This is an activity that people would happily outsource.

How did you become partners with Nightborn? Which aspects of Nightborn appealed to you the most to work together?

When I founded Shopplett, I immediately began searching for an application agency that could help me create a professional website. This quest proved to be extremely difficult. Typically, these businesses were either very expensive or didn't take part in my story, that's why I began my quest within my own network. I ended up at Nightborn because I went to school with Maxime (co-founder of NB).

The collaboration is still going strong, and we're pleased with the results. The quality of Nightborn's price is excellent.

💡 Find out more about our process at Nightborn 👉nightborn.be/process👈

Can you specify what added value Nightborn offered to Shopplett? What can you tell us about the collaboration with Nightborn?

The challenge for Shopplett and Nightborn was to create an instinctive web application in order to allow an optimal connection between the customer and the local store. Nightborn opted for a simple process and created a web application on which you just have to register and enter your address to find your favorite businesses to place your order.

When I went shopping, I realized that I had no idea which brand to buy or which expiration dates to consider. Customers have also called me immediately when they forgot to put anything on their shopping list. As a result, Nightborn has included these features in Shopplett. They were also in charge of designing the logo and branding, which included colors, fonts, a website, and a platform.

The Nightborn team was heavily involved in the development process. They took the time to understand our needs in terms of functionality and design. We've been able to provide continuous feedback throughout the entire process.

Were you positively surprised on certain points? Did you have fears?

Since I already knew Maxime, Nightborn and I had a trusting relationship from the start. These expectations have undoubtedly been achieved in a positive manner.

Final Words

Despite having a seemingly simple application, Shopplett will rapidly become essential. In Flanders, the app already has quite a few users and is planning to expand. Hopefully, Shopplett and Nightborn's efforts to this project will soon pay off.

If this article sparked your interest, feel free to check out the case study we made of Shopplett.

👉 Case study: Shopplett👈 of check out Shopplett's website.