Should I Build It Should I Build It
19 Apr 2025
Food & Drink

An app that helps grocery shoppers save money on groceries

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

Your idea of an app to help grocery shoppers save money places you in a crowded market, as indicated by the 26 similar products we found. This falls into what we call the 'Swamp' category, where numerous mediocre solutions exist without widespread user love. The low average number of comments (1) across similar products suggests low engagement in this space. While a positive 'buy' signal can be exciting, the competitive landscape suggests caution. Given the abundance of existing solutions, it's crucial to understand why they haven't fully satisfied users and to identify a truly unique angle for your app. Without a fundamentally different approach, standing out and generating revenue will be challenging.

Recommendations

  1. Begin by thoroughly researching existing grocery shopping apps, focusing on user reviews and identifying pain points that current solutions fail to address. Analyze the criticism summaries from similar products, such as users' frustration with waitlists or AI math errors, to understand common pitfalls.
  2. Instead of directly competing with established apps, consider focusing on a specific niche within grocery shopping. For instance, you could target users with dietary restrictions, those seeking sustainable options, or individuals shopping at smaller, local stores. PennyMeal is primarily US-focused, leaving opportunity to focus elsewhere.
  3. Explore potential partnerships with existing grocery delivery services or loyalty programs. Integrating your app with these platforms could provide a unique value proposition and access to a wider user base. Foodkart focuses on simple budget shopping, offering a potential integration point for more advanced features.
  4. Consider building tools that enhance existing grocery shopping platforms rather than creating a standalone app. This could involve developing browser extensions, or API integrations that provide pricing comparisons or couponing within existing grocery apps.
  5. Before investing significant resources, test your core value proposition with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Focus on a single, unique feature and gather user feedback to validate your assumptions and iterate on your idea. Savor is appreciated for simplicity; focus on simplicity in your MVP.
  6. Given the low engagement in the overall category, prioritize building a strong community around your app. Encourage user feedback, respond to comments, and actively solicit suggestions for improvement. Highlight user stories in the app to increase engagement.
  7. Since this is in the Swamp category (i.e. probably don't build it), pivot and look at adjacent problems that might be more promising. Could you provide tools to grocery stores instead of grocery shoppers for example?
  8. Realize that you might be better off saving your energy for a better opportunity, and be intellectually honest in your assessment whether you want to continue spending time on this idea.

Questions

  1. What specific, unmet need does your app address that is not currently being served by existing grocery shopping solutions, and how can you validate this need before development?
  2. Given the low engagement in similar grocery shopping apps, what strategies will you employ to build a strong and active user community around your app?
  3. How will you differentiate your app from competitors in a way that creates a defensible competitive advantage and attracts users in the long term?

Your are here

Your idea of an app to help grocery shoppers save money places you in a crowded market, as indicated by the 26 similar products we found. This falls into what we call the 'Swamp' category, where numerous mediocre solutions exist without widespread user love. The low average number of comments (1) across similar products suggests low engagement in this space. While a positive 'buy' signal can be exciting, the competitive landscape suggests caution. Given the abundance of existing solutions, it's crucial to understand why they haven't fully satisfied users and to identify a truly unique angle for your app. Without a fundamentally different approach, standing out and generating revenue will be challenging.

Recommendations

  1. Begin by thoroughly researching existing grocery shopping apps, focusing on user reviews and identifying pain points that current solutions fail to address. Analyze the criticism summaries from similar products, such as users' frustration with waitlists or AI math errors, to understand common pitfalls.
  2. Instead of directly competing with established apps, consider focusing on a specific niche within grocery shopping. For instance, you could target users with dietary restrictions, those seeking sustainable options, or individuals shopping at smaller, local stores. PennyMeal is primarily US-focused, leaving opportunity to focus elsewhere.
  3. Explore potential partnerships with existing grocery delivery services or loyalty programs. Integrating your app with these platforms could provide a unique value proposition and access to a wider user base. Foodkart focuses on simple budget shopping, offering a potential integration point for more advanced features.
  4. Consider building tools that enhance existing grocery shopping platforms rather than creating a standalone app. This could involve developing browser extensions, or API integrations that provide pricing comparisons or couponing within existing grocery apps.
  5. Before investing significant resources, test your core value proposition with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Focus on a single, unique feature and gather user feedback to validate your assumptions and iterate on your idea. Savor is appreciated for simplicity; focus on simplicity in your MVP.
  6. Given the low engagement in the overall category, prioritize building a strong community around your app. Encourage user feedback, respond to comments, and actively solicit suggestions for improvement. Highlight user stories in the app to increase engagement.
  7. Since this is in the Swamp category (i.e. probably don't build it), pivot and look at adjacent problems that might be more promising. Could you provide tools to grocery stores instead of grocery shoppers for example?
  8. Realize that you might be better off saving your energy for a better opportunity, and be intellectually honest in your assessment whether you want to continue spending time on this idea.

Questions

  1. What specific, unmet need does your app address that is not currently being served by existing grocery shopping solutions, and how can you validate this need before development?
  2. Given the low engagement in similar grocery shopping apps, what strategies will you employ to build a strong and active user community around your app?
  3. How will you differentiate your app from competitors in a way that creates a defensible competitive advantage and attracts users in the long term?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 26
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 1
  • Net use signal: 24.5%
    • Positive use signal: 24.5%
    • Negative use signal: 0.0%
  • Net buy signal: 3.2%
    • Positive buy signal: 3.2%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

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