By A Correspondent
Bates CHI&Partners Mumbai has launched festival initiative for recently acquired client Appie. This festive season, brick and mortar retailers have found their ally in the form of an app to fight the e-commerce sale war. Appie for Retailers – an App that will help empower retailers to stay competitive against e-commerce players. The newly launched application – Appie, helps connect customers and retailers in a more efficient and personal manner. Most often when customers order something through an e-commerce portal, many become victim to either delayed deliveries or wrong /damaged products. Though there is a return policy in place for all online shopping websites but what is not returned is the valuable time customers lose out in the bargain.
In all situations, one community that has always been at the losing end is the retailer community, who in spite of having better or similar products with door-step delivery capabilities get marginalized due to the noise created by e-commerce players by use of mass media. However, this festive season retailers have an ace up their sleeve with the help of partnering with a startup that is promising them to win back their lost customers.
Appie Mobiquity, a startup that has developed the app Appie, promises convenience  and instant gratification to customers as well as power to retailers. This mobile application presents a path breaking solution for making the real world retail shops / to thrive in the increasingly Digital and Mobile First world.
How Appie works:
- Customers downloads Appie app on mobile phones
- Search for the product of their choice on the application or simply share product from other ecommerce sites.
- Appie helps discover the product in the vicinity of the customer, right there
where the customer is searching on any major
e-commerce sites - Appie helps the customer find quickest possible source to get the product
along with price, availability and retailer’s information. Essentially helping the
customers get the product in as quick as 30 minutes. - Appie puts the retailer’s identity right in front and centre to the consumer
and enables a direct transaction between the retailer unlike e-commerce portals - This option also helps retailers with increased footfalls as many customers even today will prefer to touch, feel and experience the product before buying and more importantly want their purchase faster.
- Additionally Appie has decided to stand with retailers in their war with e-commerce players this festive season and offer full cash back to retailers on winning back customers from e-commerce portals.
- The Mobile App is free to download and works on any Android Phone.
Research by Google and other prominent organizations suggests that customer who research online often buy 3-5 five times more than regular shopper. Appie wants to enable a level playing field for retail shops and consumers thereby creating a win-win situation
Benefits to Retailers:
1. Affordable – No investment fee and retailers pay as low as Re 1/- for each transaction
2. Easy – User-friendly and easier than Whatsapp that enables retail shops to win customers in less than three clicks and three seconds.
3. Identity – Highlights merchant’s name and contact. Brand recall for next use
4. Quality: No discount and deals to attract customers and increase burden on retailers. Customers sent to stores are purely driven by their intent to buy.
