Mobmerry: A personalized m-commerce experience

Mobmerry is a lifestyle product discovery and mobile commerce platform for consumers and offline retailers. For consumers, there is no personalized way for consumers to discover and buy lifestyle products from multiple offline retailers in an easy and friction less manner. In an exclusive conversation with Shipra Srivastava, Founder Mobmerry, Krishna Prasad, throws light on the key functionalities of the application…

Explain the detailed functionality of the application, and how it is helping the retailers in scaling their businesses?
Mobmerry aggregates and curates lifestyle products from offline retailers & creates a personalized mobile commerce experience based on an individual’s taste and preferences.  The retail in-store merchandise of an offline retailer is not visible to a customer when he is using his mobile phone to search, discover and buy a product. Currently there is no simple and easy way for a retailer to showcase the in-store merchandise and manage the mobile commerce experience. Mobmerry helps retailers with a cloud-based next-gen mobile commerce platform that allows a store manager to on-board products, manage SKU’s, do real-time marketing, manage payments, delivery and customer loyalty in quick and efficient manner.
How is the application helpful in upgrading the shopping experience of the consumers?
We believe the biggest challenge today is in discovery. There is no personalized way for me to find things that matter to me. Generic advertising leaves with too random messages targeted at consumers and even if it is of interest it is too little and always is a challenge when it comes to taking action, be it finding more about the product or checking out the cost or figuring out where the product is available nearby. Mobmerry is taking this friction away from a consumer’s life thus making his retail experience enjoyable.
Elaborate the role of beacons in enhancing the usability of the application?
Depending on whose report you want to look at, internationally beacons are set to impact anywhere between 30 per cent to 50 per cent of all retail transactions in the next couple of years. We are using these beacons smartly to help the merchant understand his customer better so as to deliver a great experience – be it when a shopper is just passing a retail destination or when a consumer has stepped into the store. We have installed these beacons at all retails destinations who have partnered with us and these beacons constantly is communicating with the smart phones around it, so when it does identify a consumer who is interested in a particular product or service, it notifies the smart phone to take a certain action that could be to alert the user, let him know about a deal or even push a special offer that would entice the user to walk into the store.
The other interesting feature is that we allow the retail merchant to create real time marketing communication that the beacon transmits to consumers who are interested in the brand/product and also to users who are in the vicinity. This is a unique feature that most merchants are very excited about and we are seeing a much higher conversion that is leading to both the merchant and the consumer being delighted.
So far how many retailers have deployed this technology (pan India). Share the number of downloads that this application has received so far?
We started off with a very focused pilot currently at select locations in Bangalore, we launched the product end-October 2015 and we are super excited about the adoption and use. We currently have a web platform, iOS app and Android App with 28,000 Downloads, 60 Merchants Onboard, 210 online transactions, 3000+ walk-ins, 40+ media mentions and we are just getting started.
What category of retail suits best for this application?
We are a lifestyle discovery platform. We focus on fashion, food and drinks, home and décor and health and wellness, which is almost a replica of how retail outlets are organized.
What is the basic hardware and software requirement to install this app for consumers as well as brands?
Consumers can access the app via a website at www.mobmerry.com or download the app on iOS or Android Stores on their smart phones. Merchants can use the services on the merchant website and also download the app from the app stores.
Do these applications display real time brand updates – offers, new product launch etc?
Being real time is the ideal scenario, if we have access to the product catalogue with integration into the merchants POS, we do this for various merchants across a variety of POS vendors and integration. We offer merchants the real time proximity marketing platform that allows for a merchant to create a marketing campaign on the fl y with a very high degree of targeting in real time.
What is basic requirement of maintenance to use the application in long run especially from retailers per se?
It is a SAAS platform for the merchant; since it is software on the cloud it is maintenance free. All they need is a computer with a connection to the Internet or a smart phone.
How do you assure security for data collected via the app?
We are very particular about consumer data; no personally identifiable information is shared. It is all secured via multi level authentication and is encrypted via algorithms.
Share a case study considering a brand who have deployed Mobmerry application, and how it has helped the retailer in further strengthening his business?
Celio’s store at Indiranagar, was one of the first few stores that we on-boarded. It is one of the top brands with respect to Walk-ins and Sales enabled by Mobmerry and it continues to be so. We are constantly exploring the space to be able to enhance the user experience of the brand, for that matter all the brands. For example: they can now take the whole app experience to their existing customer base and make their promotions on New Season or Offers more relevant with product information at the ease and convenience of the customer.
How you are looking to expand this application further?
Relevance for a consumer is an important factor in today’s busy schedules and limited attention span. We are building a technology platform that can scale seamlessly and are of great relevance delivering delightful experiences.