Youvend: Procurement Philosophy, Web Version
Dear friends, We
present you the new Youvend service. New not only upon the appearance at the beginning of the year, but also in the direction. Youvend is a procurement automation system for the HoReCa market, that is, the catering industry. This is the first such solution in web format. There are separate web catalogs of goods or suppliers, Youvend solves four levels of problems: search and selection of goods, procurement, communication, reporting.
Why HoReCa?
Interest in HoReCa did not arise by chance. This is a huge market (in Moscow alone there are about eight thousand restaurants), in which automation of processes is completely absent. There are only R-Keeper and iiko, but they do not solve the issue of communications in procurement. As for the kitchen and providing it with purchases, here all issues are resolved in the old fashion, that is, by telephone. The cook can take up to several hours a day to talk related to finding the right product in the right amount at the right price. In addition, in addition to outgoing calls, there is a large number of telephone spam from suppliers who want to inform about new arrivals, discounts, and replacement of positions. This creates a peculiar procurement philosophy in any kitchen - and it consists in constant communication.
We decided to combine it with our philosophy, which states that the future of all communications lies in the digital plane. The progressive part of humanity has long stepped from the phone, first to email, and then to social networks and instant messengers. Why there were no such solutions before, we decided not to find out, but to offer the market such a solution. In fact, HoReCa is the first item for us, as one of the most difficult markets. If we can implement our plan here, then in any other area in which procurement arises, we can repeat this.
Work principles
Youvend is aimed at suppliers and manufacturers, on the one hand, and at customers, on the other. The supplier creates a profile in which he prescribes all the details: his product catalog, working and delivery conditions, minimum order volume, timings, cost and payment procedure. Using a catalog or search bar, the restaurant finds the right product and sees a list of suppliers. The system also helps to automatically select the most favorable conditions. If the product is not available, the restaurant may announce a tender for this or that product. Suppliers will be able to post special promotions in the future. And this is only part of the functions, we will talk about the rest in the following posts.
Also, the system allows you to see the remains of products on the supplier’s fold, so as to always be aware of the availability of goods, in the future a full document flow will appear.
All communications within the system are carried out using the system of incoming / outgoing messages and email alerts, which is common for any modern user of any platform. We want to bring such a system to the kitchen of Russian restaurants and cafes.
Success and future plans
Already, we have connected to the system more than 450 suppliers with relevant and detailed information about them. More than 100 suppliers posted their products to our catalog in our system, and now it has 38,000 items. The system was joined by more than 400 restaurants, which announced dozens of active tenders. For these tenders for the month of work, deals worth a million dollars were concluded. The service has not yet reached the monetization, but the volumes are already impressive.
Full purchase automation at Youvend starts July 1.
If we talk about the blog’s mission on Habrahabr, the service will be interesting for representatives of suppliers and manufacturers, as well as HoReCa employees responsible for maintenance (for example, those working with the support of R-Keeper, Iiko, ico-net, Jupiter, Store House and others). We are also ready to share our experience in development and answer questions related to them. If you are a restaurant representative and want to leave a request for connection, go to our website - youvend.ru . After filling out the registration form, some of the system functions will be immediately available, full access will be open after confirmation by our managers.
In the new posts of our blog, you will learn about how the work of the sales department is organized, features of technical development and project management, as well as details of other functions of our system. Hope for acceptance and feedback.
Sincerely,
Youvend PS Team
: If you are interested in this material and would like to know more about the service now, you can read an interview with Youvend CEO Maxim Meshcheryakov in Hopes and Fears .