We enable sellers to bid for high demand: Shambhavi Sinha
We enable sellers to bid for high demand: Shambhavi Sinha

Indian shopping statistics reveal that eCommerce gets faster response in tier 2 cities than tier 3 cities. Over 40 millions online shoppers look for exclusive deals before checking out of their session at present. There are various brands in the market due to which people are unable to find a reason to rely on one brand. This has given birth to a unique virtual market concept.

Based on this concept of offering strong discretionary power to the customers, ShopMate was founded. This startup believes in promoting group buying by empowering the customers. This unique business model is all set to welcome a new trend in the market. Retailer Media had an interaction with Sambhavi Sinha, CEO, ShopMate, to understand her vision and venture expansion.

How was the idea of your start-up conceptualised? What is the need you are addressing in the market?
E-commerce is a big market in India. The scenario in India is completely different from that of the U.S. E-commerce market. We decided to do something different keeping in mind the Indian consumer behaviour. After returning from the U.S., I had a business idea of offering online to offline facility to the Indian consumers. After gaining an understanding of the business and doing market research, ShopMate was established and given direction to.

ShopMate is India’s leading website that facilitates group buying by empowering customers to express their individual demands, thereby, enabling sellers to bid for the combined demand. Based on a unique virtual market concept, ShopMate groups together individual demand for a product and creates live competition amongst the local sellers to bid for the customers’ business on a real time basis, thus, enabling customers to receive bulk discounted prices. It offers convenience to the buyers and empowers the sellers in India.

Is the business model of ShopMate targeted to a specific group of customers?
No, ShopMate does not target a specific group of customers, but customers on general basis. The key to ShopMate's business model is the concept of ‘Expression of Interest’ (EOI), i.e., the desire of a consumer to buy a product. This desire is promptly captured in the form of an EOI by ShopMate, who then combines all such EOIs and invites local sellers to give offers for this pool of customers, resulting in a competition among them. The best part is that these prices are offered on a real time basis. As ShopMate keeps getting Expressions of Interest (EOI) from different individuals, it clubs them together and conveys this information to the sellers, which results in a live bidding process among them. 

Are the products sold by ShopMate technology centric?
Currently, ShopMate is offering its services in Delhi-NCR for selling mobile phones, tablets, laptops, computers, bikes and scooters based on the unique group-buying concept. Therefore, the products sold by ShopMate are technology centric.

What makes your mode of operations unique?
ShopMate is a platform that allows you to view a product, examine all its specifications and variants, book it online, only to make the final purchase from a local vendor who has confirmed your order. Thus, ShopMate brings you ease of online shopping along with the touch & feel experience of a traditional, offline store. ShopMate has a wide network of local vendors who offer their products on our site. There is no need to worry about identifying and authenticating the seller.

Now, the universal grievance about offline shopping- too much time required. ShopMate allows you to research online. Not only does ShopMate save your time and energy, but your money as well.  We create a virtual market where you can collectively bargain for a product and pull the overall price down.

What are your plans of business expansion? Are these plans confined to only online space?
The business which started out with just one category — mobiles and tablet — has now added two wheelers and computers as well. ShopMate plans to add two new categories, electronics and cars, in the next two months. The company is also looking at rolling out operations in Agra, Lucknow, Meerut and Chandigarh by end-2016.

None of the hyper local players work on the concept of group buying. The advantage of bulk pricing and a negotiation platform where sellers compete amongst themselves to capture customers in groups is unique to us and will hold us in good stead.

Have you raised any funding so far?  What are your plans to use this funding for?
We are seed funded company founded in 2015 with seed money of Rs 1 crore, put in by family and friends.

Who is your target consumer? Could you share how you have detailed your consumer?
Target Consumer: We cater to the customers who are actually looking for freedom from the uncertainties of online shopping, confidence of the best local price along with the ease of shopping offline without stumbling from store to store in search of the best bargain. Customer behaviour is trending towards a-la-carte these days where they always want customised offering for them. Thus, ​ we always detail our customers accordingly. The company helps consumers discover products and offers from merchants in their neighborhood through its mobile platform and even make the final purchase without going to the store. 

What is your current distribution in brick and mortar space? What are your future distribution plans?​
According to studies, over 60 percent of consumers research a product online before going to a store to make a purchase. We are bridging the gap between when someone who is viewing a product online and when they go shop to shop to check for the prices and bargain to complete a purchase. 

We promote offline shopping by providing local sellers an opportunity to compete with other online and offline vendors while ensuring that customers save time and energy spent in going shop-to-shop to look for the best offers.

We are currently focusing on increasing our seller base as per our business model and don't have any plans to set up our own distribution channel in the near future.

What was it that attracted the Investors to your business? Have you had to pivot your business in any way that has worked for you?
Our business model is unique in nature which aggregates similar interests to make a virtual group and bargains​ with sellers and brands​ for group discounts. 

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