Fractional Market Shop
Because it can take me up to 2 hours to cook something that isn’t instant noodles or canned food, I’ve yet to reach an adulthood level where I’m cooking every day of the week. So for now, the chore is reserved for just the weekends or a particularly productive weekday.
Abdulrahman Ahmed is a Software Engineering student who can relate to this. Often getting takeout, he rarely cooked for himself. But when he did, he found that the ingredient portions sold in regular grocery stores were too large.
Hence, he took it upon himself to develop a service where individuals could shop for groceries in smaller portions, therefore only buying the ingredients in exact amounts they need.
Champion Bolo Bun
Buy what you need
Fractional Market’s Shop page is where customers will buy their groceries in portions. From there, you can choose to add items to your cart and specify the weight or quantities of your desired amount.
Prices are reflected based on the portions you chose. The cost of portioned items is determined based on the product’s existing price at grocery stores, with an added premium on them that serves as service costs. This is how Fractional Market monetized.
Furthermore, deliveries are free if orders exceed RM20. Otherwise, it’ll be RM5.
However, the products listed on Fractional Market are limited, with no meats or frozen items available. When asked, Abdulrahman had a good reason for this.
During his market validation, Abdulrahman realized that people mainly wanted to buy fresh vegetables in smaller quantities because they would go bad faster.
On the other hand, meat could be frozen. Thus, with meat and other frozen items being less of a priority, Abdulrahman has limited the items offered, but he’s open to adding more in the future and will do so as the business grows.
It doesn’t have an inventory
Still operating on a minuscule scale, the most economical and efficient way to carry out such an operation is on a per-order basis. Meaning, once an order arrives, Abdulrahman will go to the grocery store nearby, purchase the products, fractionalize it in-house, then deliver it to the consumer.
To maintain a level of food safety, Abdulrahman, who sometimes ropes in his brother, will wear face masks, gloves, and cover-up all their hair when working with the items.
“Repacking should not take more than 1 to 2 minutes as we try to minimize external contact as much as possible,” he added.
Currently repackaged in plastic ziplock bags, Abdulrahman is also looking into greener options as being environmentally conscious and sustainable is one of the company’s core values. It was the whole point of Fractional Market’s presence too, to hopefully reduce food waste.
Fractional Market Shop
