INS, a new blockchain establishment is bringing a revolutionary and innovative system to the grocery industry, primarily targeting Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies. The INS Ecosystem is the first global DECENTRALISED ecosystem that will directly connect grocery manufacturers and consumers, by utilising blockchain technology. There is a huge market for INS as currently there is no mainstream FinTech or Blockchain company that is challenging large scale retailers and the monopolistic environment that global supermarket chains have on the FMCG and retail industry. INS aims to change that by connecting the manufacturers directly with the global consumer market, in essence cutting out the middle man. It should be noted now that 7 out of the Top-20 global FMCG manufacturers and more than 100 in total are showing interest to join the INS Ecosystem. Among them are global well-known brands such as Dettol, Air Wick, Calagon, Vanish, Veet, Gaviscon, Scholl and Durex.
Why is this Revolutionary?
Well seeing that the global FMCG and grocery retail markets are currently dominated primarily by a select few large scale retailers and supermarket chains, the essence of INS cutting out the “middle man” shall change the way consumers are able to buy products. While the internet has already been shifting the way consumers are buying goods, online grocery shopping has been the primary method that households use to conduct their weekly or monthly shopping. There actually isn’t a need any more for the “middle man” supermarket chains to be the ones to supply to consumers. Asides from benefitting the industry as a whole, INS will be positively contributing to globally concerning issues that are in the mainstream spotlight. These include issues such as environmental sustainability — as energy consumption is increasing and global carbon emissions are at an all-time high creating mass global warming, population growth — which requires development of housing infrastructures, and issues surrounding wastage of products — as shortages in food and resources are expected to follow during our times of the millennia global growth catastrophe that our world is in. With the supermarket chains being challenged we could potentially see a huge amount of space and land being freed up as large scale hypermarkets will end up not being sustainable enough to be run anymore and having to close down, essentially reducing energy outputs and allowing space for housing infrastructure developments. The fact that some hypermarkets are open 24/7 the energy consumption that these establishments use combined is enormous, considering that checkout POS systems, chill rooms, offices and lighting are all constantly running and consuming power. INS is positively taking advantage of the technological paradigm shift that blockchain technology and smart contracts are bringing to our global economy.
How is it Beneficial to Global Public Consumers?
Considering that 4 main global retailers currently hold a 76% market share of the grocery shopping industry, public consumers are essentially involuntarily forced to buy from those outlets. The fact that INS aims to connect the manufacturers directly to consumers will bypass those monopolistic companies and enable consumers to obtain their household goods for up to 30% cheaper than they would otherwise. Trade promotions are also a big issue that retailers manipulate and abuse, by pushing certain brands and products onto customers due to promotions and discounts. Deloitte stated that trade promotion spending represent 17% of manufacturer’s sales, however, over $50 billion each year of trade promotions actually never reach the consumer. This is due to the lack of accurate timely information, the inability to plan promotions based on analytics, ineffective organisation and partner integration, and the lack of appropriate KPIs. By weaving out the big retailers not only will consumers be given a better price for goods, but also be able to buy the products which they want, and not influenced by ones which attract them due to being on promotional offer or discounted. INS calls it “Consumption 2.0”, a form of solving the issue of one way street communication where retailer’s push those goods what help to maximize their profits, and not that what consumers actually want. With the INS Ecosystem it will provide a more personalised and transparent approach to grocery shopping, keeping both consumers and manufacturers happy, while solving current issues within the FMCG supply chain. INS also aims to incorporate a reward system whereby manufacturers create bespoke marketing programs which will incentivise and reward their customers directly. It will operate in a similar fashion to the airline industry’s miles-based reward programs, however, thanks to blockchain technology and smart contracts it will be not only cheaper to run but more technologically advanced.
Benefiting Farmers and Smaller Manufacturers
The INS ecosystem also aims to benefit smaller manufacturers and specifically farmers too. While the world is heading into an era where GMO goods are being frowned upon and there is more concern about chemically genetically modified production, the general public are more steered towards fresh and organic produce. With farmers usually operating small scale establishments, maybe having a family run store on their farm, or at most a small online shop, INS will directly benefit and help farmers themselves to start supplying on a national and global scale. This essentially will not only help growth for these small family run farms, but also assist them in scaling up their operations, maybe even swinging people towards supporting and buying products from the smaller supplier than buying from the larger corporations. The INS Ecosystem is really revolutionising the grocery industry from the top-down, and it will be beneficial for many small scale operations and retailers. The supermarkets have crushed local people and family businesses long enough and it is surely that time for a positive and innovative change.
The Problem with Supermarkets
There are numerous problems and enormous issues that have been established with supermarkets and the large retail chains, which INS has identified and aims to eradicate. Firstly, it is due to the monopolistic environment — the buyer power by retailers. As previously mentioned the 4 main retailers control a 76% market share of the grocery shopping market and this has led them to abuse their buyer power to unethically force and influence manufacturers to meet their unprincipled needs and desires. In many countries just a few retailers have the power over the whole market, for instance in the UK it’s Tesco, Lidl and Waitrose, in the USA it’s Wal-Mart and Albertsons, in Germany it’s Kaiser and Real and in Austria it is Hofer/Aldi. These companies have a major influence on the products they wish to market and sell, mainly derived from maximising profit. They are able to put pressure and unethically influence the manufacturers to supply them those brands which can help to achieve their goals of profit maximisation, meanwhile most of the time not even passing down the full discounts to the consumer.
Using buyer power to an advantage is not a bad thing; business is business at the end of the day. However, squeezing manufacturers beyond economies of scale and using that buyer power aggressively to seek larger volumes for better prices due to lack of manufacturers control is not fair. The full problem boils down to the fact that the supermarket chains have outgrown even their supplier’s market control, leaving manufacturers with little or no option regarding negotiations. The likes of the largest manufacturers such as Proctor & Gamble, Unilever and Nestle are essentially forced to comply with the large retailers conditions as a huge chunk of their revenue streams come from them, therefore, leading to the abuse from those large retailers to maximise their own gains. An example of this is that Wal-Mart accounted for 16% of Proctor & Gamble sales in 2016, yet their sales are more than 5 times greater than those of Proctor & Gamble who are their largest supplier. This is a super-monopolistic market share and influence that Wal-Mart themselves have that they are fully abusing to their advantage, and it’s time that these global supermarket sharks are swept away. The Competition Commission in the UK found that these major retailers benefit from a price advantage that exceeds even the cost difference, while also delaying and extending payments, essentially forcing manufacturers to supply them at best break-even or a loss. And, where this power is indefinitely abused is the fact that retailers can easily drop products from their shelves, and fully determine what goes on their shelves and under what terms, such as sources of production, packaging, quality of goods, returns policies and most importantly the pricing and payment conditions.
The INS Team and Partners
The INS founders and team comprises of veterans in not only the grocery industry but the global high level business environment, holding the relevant market experience and contacts to start a blockchain business of this scale. Some of their team experience come from top level prestigious global companies such as Rothschild, McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, IBM, GE, PWC, MTS and Mail.ru to name a few. The INS founder gained global recognition through pioneering “Instamart”, a venture backed grocery delivery operator in Russia. Instamart has since signed contracts with some of the largest retailers in Russia and employs more than 200 people. In these 4 years the founders were able to become familiar with the grocery industry and find major flaws and drawbacks in the grocery retail ecosystem. Thus, the idea of INS was born to disrupt the grocery ecosystem by decentralising it and solve those issues surrounding abuse, monopolisation and manipulation by directly connecting consumers to manufacturers. Through Instamart the founders were able to develop a direct relationship with manufacturers that include the world’s largest multinational FMCG companies. Among them: Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Mars, PepsiCo and Valio — those 6 of which bring 99% of products and brands into households worldwide.
Amid their partners of blockchain and FinTech companies are Bancor (decentralised liquidity network), Civic (blockchain identity verification), BitFury (software & hardware solutions), Ambrosus (IoT sensors to track quality of food & medicine), Blockchain Ventures (crypto & blockchain investment fund), DigitalX (blockchain advisory & consulting) among many others.
Existing Investors
INS already has investor support from the world’s 7th largest company by page views, and the largest internet company in Eastern Europe. The only company that could influence the world’s largest country (Russia) to not use Facebook — Mail.ru Group, founder and owner of VK (Russian social network), Armoured Warfare & Skyforge (gaming), Maps.me (map services), BeepCar (car sharing) and Delivery Club (food delivery service). Other existing investors include:
Mr Lev Khasis, First Deputy CEO of Russia’s largest retail bank Sberbank.
Mr Sergey Solonin who possesses 20 years of experience in payment and banking services and is Founder & CEO of Qiwi Group, a leading provider of next generation payment services in Russia and the Russian Commonwealth, turning over more than $10 billion.
Mr Ilya Yakubson, recognised as “Man of the Year in Retail 2015” and Ex-CEO of Dixy, the 4th largest grocery retail chain in Russia.
Summary and Conclusion
In my personal opinion I think the INS Ecosystem will cause a huge disruption in the FMCG and grocery market, while giving an innovative platform and basis to eradicate the shark-like supermarket chains that only wish to manipulate things fully to their advantage. The fact that we as a global economy are in a paradigm shift technologically, politically and economically — largely contributed to by the crypto-sphere and blockchain technology makes it all the while better and more exciting. I believe that INS will have a fruitful future and big success within the crypto-sphere as a pioneering FinTech blockchain company that will change the way we shop. Meanwhile also doing some good ethical things such a revitalising the market environment for farmers and smaller scale producers & manufacturers. Their ICO will end in 3 and a half days, and INS has already managed to raise 90% of their target hard cap of 60,000 Ethereum (1 Ethereum is currently valued at $680).
I believe that INS can greatly make a positive impact to the world economically, environmentally and also help to contribute in solving those issues mentioned surrounding global population crisis and food wastage & shortages. If you wish to contribute to the ICO kindly use my referral link which you can find below:
https://tokensale.ins.world/?ref=f05d45728cb5a1d98676501f
By participating to this ICO you will not only be making a contribution with hopefully gaining a great return on your investment, but you are also contributing as an honourable person to something which is ethical and moral; something which will change the monopolistic and abusive shopping environment that the big global retailers and supermarket chains have sustained for too long!
For more information on INS Ecosystem:
Website — ins.world/
Whitepaper — ins.world/INS-ICO-Whitepaper.pdf
Presentation — ins.world/INS-ICO-Presentation.pdf
OnePager — ins.world/INS-ICO-OnePager.pdf
Facebook — www.facebook.com/ins.ecosystem
Twitter — www.twitter.com/ins_ecosystem
Twitter Handle — @INS_Ecosystem
Telegram Chat — t.me/ins_ecosystem or 