Best deals by brick and mortar shops are not getting noticed due to the increasing clamour and noise of online outlets on mobiles and the Web. The showroom shopping experience has a definite advantage of feeling the product, immediate delivery apart from ease of exchange or return, say part time coders G. Manendra and N. Srikanth who have developed an app for Android phones.
After a study of the market operations and typical consumer behaviour, the two mechanical engineers, who teamed up right from their days in ANITS Engineering College, decided to take up a project that addresses a felt need of the consumers with a sound revenue model. “There is a high degree of digital awareness and utilisation among the people of the city,” Manendra told The Hindu, explaining their decision to set up www.okvizag.com for the business.
We are employed in separate firms and meet or chat up everyday and we felt it was a good idea to develop a digital product addressing a felt need of the people of the city, Manendra said.
Their app basically pushes the best deals being offered on any given day to the handset. The app has clearly organised sections to enable the phone user search for the best deal in town on the section of his or her interest. The phone user will get updated only if the phone is alive and active for a prefixed period of time to ensure that old deals are not pushed into the phone when it is switched on, Manendra explained.
The vendors have to mail their deals and the duo after verification with the vendor would immediately upload the data resulting in its being pushed to the handsets of consumers, Srikanth explained. The two are trying to work out a subscription model for the vendors to be able to publish and broadcast their deals to the consumer directly. The shopkeepers have shown keen interest in the model, he added.
