Sesame Eats

Deloitte Digital // New Venture
Shanghai, China 2019
Client: Global Fortune 100 Plastics Manufacturer
Role: Design & Research Lead
Duration: 4 months

Skills: Brand Strategy, Physical Prototyping, Service Design, Venture & Pilot Design

Ambition
Faced with pressure from both governments, customers, and consumers around the world, a global plastics manufacturing leader saw the need to develop sustainable new business models in key growth markets. We were engaged to advise them on framing the innovation strategy, developing new business ideas, and launching a new venture. We focused on addressing the plastic waste challenge in the Chinese online food delivery industry, where 20 million orders per day generates over 2 million tons of single-use plastic waste each year. 

Impact
Within 18 months, our integrated team of strategists, designers, and tech developers from the US and China helped our clients conceptualize a portfolio of new consumer-centric business ideas, conduct extensive product/market fit experiments, and launch a sustainable food delivery venture in downtown Shanghai. The sustainable food delivery venture addressed unmet consumer needs in food delivery, unlocked over $1B per year in new revenue opportunity at scale, and was championed as a example of successful corporate innovation both within and outside of the client organization. As a result of the success of this venture, the client continued to challenge their existing business models, invest in innovation, and have since launched multiple new ventures out of their internal innovation center. While this venture was initially developed for the food delivery system, through our research and pilot, it became apparent that real estate developers are also seeking innovative solutions like Sesame Eats to create differentiated tenant experiences. Since launch, Sesame Eats has become a key spotlight case study for multiple Deloitte RFPs for our real estate practice.