91看片

鈥淧ersevering, staying focused on what you want to be and what you鈥檙e good at 鈥� you鈥檝e got to stay the course." 鈥� Louise Pritchard, co-founder of Shopii 

The 91看片 College is dedicated to developing graduates who are highly-skilled, professionally prepared, confident, ethical, and globally minded.

Envision yourself meal planning 鈥� you sort through recipe books, jot down the ingredients, then head to your local grocery store to search, aisle by aisle, for the products to finally make dinner, or try the equally frustrating task of ordering groceries online. Louise Pritchard, a 1978 91看片 College marketing graduate, along with her co-founder Katie Hotze, had a better idea: why not let a simple online bot do the work? 

鈥淕o to your grocer鈥檚 web site and click on the floating bot that says 鈥榩lan your meals in five minutes or less,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淵ou are immediately directed to a meal planning source of popular recipes and/or recipes that met your personal profile. When you click 鈥榗heck out,鈥� you are seamlessly taken back into the online grocery store鈥檚 checkout, where you can continue to order items like milk, dog food, etc.鈥�  

The meal is planned and the ingredients are purchased 鈥� at your fingertips. , an eCommerce platform coming soon to stores near you, was co-founded in 2019 by Pritchard, who recognized the need for faster meal planning and purchasing. Things changed in 2020.  

鈥淏efore COVID, online sales of groceries was pretty anemic,鈥� said Pritchard, an Atlanta native who has spent the past 20 years in Williamsburg, Virginia. 鈥淚t was no longer about firing up sales, which was our tagline. It became grocery shopping re-imagined because stores now had more online business than they could handle. Our play to stores was 鈥� 鈥榊ou鈥檝e got all of these people. How are you going to retain them?鈥� 鈥楬ow are you differentiating your platform?鈥�  

鈥淓verybody is jumping on the grocery eCommerce opportunity. Until now, no one had figured out how to make the experience seamless, which would save time. Some see us as a differentiator. We play in the B2B space looking for ways to help grocers build loyalty at the store level and they see the Shopii application as a differentiator.鈥�  

Pritchard, also the company鈥檚 Chief Marketing Officer, said her business鈥� key differentiators are 1) personalizing the customer experience, 2) expediting the experience, and 3) inspiring shoppers with fresh recipes daily. 鈥淔or us, we鈥檙e talking about retaining grocery stores鈥� customers鈥�, building loyalty and giving them something that would keep them from jumping. That鈥檚 how we are changing the narrative,鈥� she said.  

Taking a chance on a startup, whether it鈥檚 a software company or health club, takes patience, guts and determination, Pritchard believes.

鈥淧ersevering, staying focused on what you want to be and what you鈥檙e good at 鈥� you鈥檝e got to stay the course," she said. "We tested, learned and tested some more. We鈥檝e conducted customer discovery at every corner. We鈥檝e had setbacks and we鈥檝e had days when we were floating on air with excitement. But you must persevere and adapt in the startup space 鈥� and that is where we excel.  

鈥淏eing the owner of a startup can be like drinking out of a fire hose sometimes. You鈥檝e got to think strategically and with thick skin. There are so many unknowns and there鈥檚 a lot pulling on you. In one single day, you are handling so many different things. But it鈥檚 energizing at the same time.鈥�