SMART FRIDGE

A BUSINESS PLAN

- SAGNIK ADHIKARY
WHAT IS A SMART FRIDGE ?

• A smart refrigerator is a high-tech programmed refrigerator that is able to detect the type of items
stored in it and keep track of important details such as expiry and usage. These refrigerators work
on a barcode or RFID system whereby they collect the batch and manufacture detail directly from
the Internet.
• A smart refrigerator is also known as an Internet refrigerator.
• A luxury refrigerator that will be marketed to the high‐end audience and niche market.
• The market is very saturated and highly competitive in the household segment by companies such
as LG, Whirlpool, etc. So the barriers to entry will be very high and we will need to standout by
offering an innovative solution.
MENU FOR TODAY

• Target Market
• Key Players currently
• Pain Points
• Ideas
• Tech Innovations
• Trade-offs
TARGET MARKET

• Commercial uses for major restaurants, luxury homes/hotels and more such
luxurious places. (high priority)
• Supermarkets and grocery businesses. (High Priority)
• Upper middle class to Upper class families in India, ages from 26-40
(Medium Priority)
• Innovators (Low priority)
KEY PLAYERS IN INDIA

• Samsung Electronics
• LG Electronics
• Godrej
• Whirlpool Corporation
• Haier
 PAIN POINTS
Grocery Business
• Most grocery stores do home delivery these days by using services such as Amazon Prime Now, Instacart, Zomato etc. The existence of delivery services calls for the need to
efficiently select fresh items from the refrigerator as the orders come in.
• Grocery businesses care about power saving and any other ways to save costs by efficiently managing the inventory.
• For large refrigerators typical of big grocery chains, it is very hard for the operators to understand where each item is and where there is space.
• Inventory management requires human effort.
Restaurants
• Restaurants share a lot of needs and pain points that grocery businesses have, including saving power and cost, managing inventory, understanding where everything is, and
potentially the need to deliver food.
• The ability to understand freshness is also a major concern and requires human effort.
• Restaurants make food as it is ordered, especially for high-frequency/high-effort/low-value menu items such as ice cream. We can have an instant cooling feature that is taken
care of by liquid nitrogen as a default setting (in the case of ice cream).
• Restaurants must generate food safety reports to comply with the food industry standard. Hygiene is a manual effort that requires continued care and investment with a big
potential risk.

Homes
• Expensive and larger maintenance & power costs.
• Children tend to fiddle with the smart fridge, leading to more issues technically.
• Many Indians are unsure as to what a smart fridge can do for them.
• Difficult to upgrade to a much higher costing product.
A SMART FRIDGE’S FUNCTIONS
(MEDITATED/EXPECTED)
Customers use the touchscreen interface to:
• Coordinate schedules for every member of the family/ or your customers.
• Look up recipes and have your fridge read the steps while you cook (both for homes and businesses).
• Create grocery lists that sync to your smartphone in real-time.
• Set expiration dates and receive notifications to use food while it's fresh.
• Upload photos for display.
• Create individual profiles for each family member to send them personal notes and to-do lists.
• Use a whiteboard option to leave messages for your family.
• Transparent touchscreens allow you to look inside the fridge without opening the door.
• Cast from a smart TV in another room to watch from the kitchen.

The touchscreen is not the only novel thing a smart fridge can do. You can also use your smart fridge features to:
• Customize temperature by drawer or compartment.
• Use interior cameras while at the store to double-check if you’re low on milk or eggs.
• Alert you when the water filter needs to be changed.
• Turn the ice maker on or off from your smartphone.
IDEAS
• The fridge will provide automatic inventory management with sensors and barcode scanner inside the fridge.
• The fridge will work like a vending machine with First In First Out (FIFO) order for optimal grocery delivery service without
wasting inventory.  
• Power mode enabled when relatively lower inventory status and during times there is no input expected (no need to
automatically scan and enter data).  
• Freshness report powered by machine learning technology, enabled by the data gathered through the sensor-scanner.  
• Instant freezing technique which doesn’t require liquid nitrogen (which often causes injury by thermal burn) to efficiently
produce menu items such as ice cream.
• Ability to dismantle refrigerator segments to optimize for space.
• Child lock.
• Face recognition software.
• Voice assistant.
TECH INNOVATION

The first four features that I shall give priority :

• Auto scanning for inventory management (AI powered)
• FIFO system for delivery service (AI and ML)
• power mode to save power costs.
• ML-powered freshness report are applicable to all segments especially groceries and restaurants. (Commercial use)

The last 2 elements shall be given medium prioritizing since these are something we have already mastered a
• instant freezing
• dismantling segments for space optimization