Kravve is yet another startup that aims to claim a slice of that homecooked meals pie, but their approach is a tad different. Where with platforms like Dinez-in and PlateCulture, part of the allure lies in going to a stranger’s house to enjoy the taste of homemade food together, Kravve wants to position itself as a marketplace for home chefs.
In the homecooked food business, Kravve has given up on the idea of homemade meals in a stranger’s home altogether, and functions more like the foodpanda or Etsy of homecooked delights.
Their aim is to provide a convenient platform for homecooks who have been doing social selling all this while (e.g. Instagram or Facebook) or even those homecooks who have always been told to, “Start selling your food already, it’s amazing!” but are not sure how to start.
On top of that, the platform does offer a variety of meal deliveries as well.
“We want to create another avenue to people to make extra side income or even make a full-time business by just cooking at home,” said Teh Yong Lin, one of the co-founders. “We believe in the concept of sharing economy, and one day, who knows, you might just buy your food from someone in your neighbourhood instead of going into an restaurant.”
Everything Began From A Simple Problem
During a casual chat one morning, one of the co-founders asked his mother about selling her baking online.
She wanted to help out with the family’s expenses but lacked the marketing know-how and and had no idea how to get the word out on social media. She also had no idea how to handle the customer service that may not convert into sales and thus wasn’t keen on exploring it as an avenue.
With her personal struggles in mind, Kravve was developed to target this specific problem.
Kravve looks and feels like an e-commerce platform for homemade bites. Sellers used to marketing on Facebook and Instagram will probably find this type of platform much more convenient, especially since most e-commerce platforms don’t allow sellers to upload perishables like food onto their site.
As a bonus, sellers can purchase ingredients on the Kravve platform close to a wholesale price, so that even the pre-cooking logistics are covered.
On top of that, at least for social sellers, the product purchasing aspect is more streamlined as the only option on a Kravve page is to either to make their orders, or ask for a special request from the seller.
That being said, I personally find that the lack of a chat option for customers to talk to sellers a potential drawback. Some homecooks may want to make that pitch in order to close a sale, while buyers might have a few questions about the food that may not translate as a “request”.
Having just launched their website only a couple of weeks back, the Kravve now has 50 home cooks to choose from, and they’re actively looking for more sellers to join them, so for the first 3 months, signups for sellers will be free.
To further help their homecooks tackle this world of internet selling, Kravve also offers photography classes to help sellers figure out the lens. This leads to more delicious-looking pictures up on the site, which is win-win for both of them.
“We run ads to increase the traffic to the website. We are also present in roadshows and events to increase exposure for the platform.”
“Other than that we are also exploring partnerships with some of the prominent government-linked agencies to reach out to more people,” said Teh Yong Lin, one of the co-founders.
An Intuitive Site
I touched a little on how the food on Kravve is searchable, but compared to similar startups, the availability of search does seem to set it apart. I can easily narrow down all of the search results to “cake” if I happen to have a hankering for it that day, and the site lets you filter by price range.
“Most of us want healthy food and perhaps, more variety. Yet it is hard to reach out to a homeseller. Even if they know which Facebook group to go to, it’s hard to even find the post, much less to compare prices,” said the team.
Kravve wants to serve a centralised platform which customers go for homemade food. They have picked out the advantages of e-commerce and applied it to a more small-business field of homecooking.
The site is also intuitively split into categories, between homemade desserts (that are further divided into small categories) set meals, catering, custom orders (for birthday cakes and the like) and for Muslim eaters, a specific category that collects all of the halal food in one spot.
Kravve’s goal is a more specific niche as opposed to other platforms. And while they’re not the first to be doing what they are, the marketplace approach that they are taking in order to sell the same products, as well as the thoughtfulness that they have put into the design of their site does seem to showcase a thorough understanding of their clientele, both as homesellers and home-eaters.
How far this particular style will take them remains to be seen, but as far as buying cakes for my next birthday bash goes, I might find myself taking a look at Kravve to consider my options.
