Geolocation marketplace app

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 17, 2013, 5:05 pm

No 1 cares !!!

Amod Gokhale November 18, 2013, 4:35 am

Anup,

Do a market survey, find what other apps are doing and what you can add more

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 18, 2013, 5:30 am

Thank you for your advice Amod. Would also like to know, will you download this app as an end customer? Do you find utility in the concept as a customer?

Amod Gokhale November 18, 2013, 6:02 am

yep.. i’ll give it a shot..

Vikram Kulkarni November 18, 2013, 8:22 am

My understanding for problems might be,
1. People generally make retail purchases at their familiar location or the one nearby their residence. In that case, the target customer for app will be very limited. (may be a new settlers might need this or people who travel a lot)
2. Displaying products is good, but if app cannot ensure it is available till you reach that shop, it will be worthless.
3. Sometimes we search for few things, not necessary buy them immediately.

Overall a market survey is must to know how will be the response, but before that you need to outline what all the things you are going to offer.

Let me know your views.

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 18, 2013, 11:33 am

Hi Vikram,
Thanks for replying to the post.
1. People generally buy consumer goods from the retailers in their surroundings. But when it comes to buying other products like apparels or handbags or accessories you can see people explore new products and stores which gives them a wow effect. For example me buying a suite from rajajinagar is less probable, the probability of me buying suite from koramangala or indiranagar is higher though I may be a resident of rajajinagar. People travel to shop. But as you said I need to do a thorough market research and survey.
2. The availabilty of the product will be maintained the store owner himself as I give him a device with gps and a cms installed in it. The product offering may not change on a daily basis but the inventory rate will. So he will have to update on daily basis. The control here is the owner has to do it for his reputation and to get more walkin’s
3. Yes there are lot of drop out rates, which cannot be controlled. But the store is marketed.
4. I would also add a search tab in the app to also pick up an area/pincode of your choice and explore the options there.
5. The categories are yet to be decided and the quality parameters for any store to be up have to be defined.

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 18, 2013, 11:34 am

Thanks again! You made me think again!!!

Vikram Kulkarni November 18, 2013, 11:54 am

Yup. You have a point there.
Will be interested in this. Keep me posted.

All the best.

Abhik Prasad November 18, 2013, 12:07 pm

Anoop, i had thought of something similar in 2008 when strolling through a mall in Bangalore and wondering if there was way stores could send sms’s to visitors strolling by with discount coupons…

its a chicken and egg situation you are in.

If you don’t have a large number of retailers on board, customers wont come.
If you don’t have a large number of users of the app, retailers won’t come.

Build a prototype in your spare time, pilot it for a mall in our city and talk to your early adopter users. Dont waste time on market surveys.

cheers and good luck

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 18, 2013, 12:18 pm

Hi Abhik,
Thanks for your suggestion. Appreciate it. We are working on the pilot. We are already in the mobile app development for our suppliers or vendors. We are doing good with that.
1.Right now I am selling to the vendor a technology support to develop an app for his own store and nothing else. We do not even market his app.An app development company.
2. I am not promising them any traction.
3. Looking at our potential market with so many stores,restaurants, spas etc getting their app developed I thought we need to just develop a platform where people can identify our suppliers and use them.
4. Why I need a market survey is to test will customers really use this app and to measure the utility of it.

Amod Gokhale November 18, 2013, 1:27 pm

came across this.. https://spotzot.com/ you might want to take a look

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 18, 2013, 6:15 pm

Hi Amod,

This is similar but not exactly the same. They display offers which is one of our feature.

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 18, 2013, 9:25 pm

Can anyone tell me how to contact Alok Kejriwal and other top names to get this validated?

Anoop Nair November 19, 2013, 2:13 am

Anoop..

Alok and others are already having an eye on your discussion. This is what I felt from my past experience on Therodinhoods. They can jump into your discussion anytime. So keep asking and discussing your idea. They will definitely respond to your concern.

Thanks!

Anoop Nair November 19, 2013, 2:15 am

Also Anoop.. I have also developed something similar but not an app. Its a website. We can discuss things if you get some time.

Thanks!

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 19, 2013, 4:26 am

Sure Anoop. Share your email id.

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 19, 2013, 9:50 pm

Can anyone tell me what makes this different from the just dial app?

Anoop Nair November 20, 2013, 1:55 am

anoop at ewehelp dot com

Jitendra Gursingh November 22, 2013, 9:03 am

@ Anoop, the idea is definitely a good one but requires a lot of thought process.

Firstly, instead of being an everything to everyone, please identify a niche. Once you excel in that niche, then it will be easier for people to identify, relate & become a default “go-to” app.

Another important thing is that there a number of geolocation apps available including the big daddy Google Maps! All of them show info but none of them give much importance to ratings / reviews. If your app has to show “only the best” it means it should be having a solid review system in place. Something like what Zomato has done for eateries..

The above is MHO…all d best..

Darshan Bhambiru November 22, 2013, 1:54 pm

Hi Anoop,

Since you are already Developing the app on your end I would only like to bring to you the things that you can Add or integrate rather than show you around what is already there maybe a google search on Google Playstore or the iTunes store should throw up a lot of the names with the actual apps in use as well too for your reference which you can individually check in the free time you get 🙂

Though there are already a lot of Specific Apps doing the rounds on ios and Android both in the same field of interest its the PUSH technology at play here more than what the user would like or Love to PULL from the ones available too, Just dial already has a Huge database of Vendors (paid and free) with User base as well too and the identifier for Just dial is always the Phone number the user calls from or connects too, you might need to identify something similar to tie the users as well for more interaction taking place.

If you are looking for an option or not reinvent the wheel or want as if it’s the individual that triggers the message when they enter, stay in or leave a location.

Smartphone makers are releasing more smartphones faster than ever before, and wireless carriers are rolling out new plans to make it affordable to buy new phones more often.
New smartphones are unveiled every month, if not every week.

Then again there are choices on the Platforms too.

Everybody has a smartphone these days. More than ever before, the devices are fashion accessories, status symbols and cultural differentiators. It’s an unfortunate truth, but harsh judgments are made every day based on smartphone “fanboism.” If you’re an Apple fanboi, and you see someone in a bar using an older BlackBerry, there’s a good chance you’ll quickly judge them or the Ubiquitous Android as well and then we have the MS Windows Phones too.

It is already a Win Win situation with the Service providers and the Consumers switching almost instantaneously whenever there is a new thing which gets announced and the Network adopts it too which gets auto Recommended and then the Rush to get it starts again.

In the never-ending quest to sell more phones, wireless carriers are rolling out new plans that let you upgrade to new smartphones more frequently, and for less money up front.

What with hardware and Services Bundle offers You can look to Co ordinate with some of the service providers if not all for a start since they already have a User base likewise Smartphone makers are also coming up with clever new ways to sell more phones to more people in less time. Which spotlights another interesting trend: Smartphones don’t seem to last as long as they used to, so you can have the App preloaded on the New phones as an Arrangement too if Possible and if this could be organized Best option to think on.

Multiple uses Single App which could deliver some or all or others too in addition to the ones mentioned below.

Retail and Loyalty
Engage loyal customers with personalized content and deals the moment they enter your store.

Tourism
Bring public attractions to life by informing tourists of interesting locations as they explore your city.

Real Estate
Send messages to prospective home buyers when their search criteria matches a home nearby.

Public Alerts
Notify citizens about events such as road closures or civic emergencies based on past locations.

Energy Management
Use your location to automatically manage power consumption in your home or office Turn on or off AC, Refrigerators or Lights remotely or Even Open a Lock (Digital).

Personalized Offers
Send customized, individual offers to potential customers as they pass by your establishment.

Use API’s available a complete, real-time toolkit for tracking, messaging, battery management, geofencing, storage and actionable analytics to enhance the same on your app or check if this would work for you too.

You need to have the App be a Social App too for the users to provide the ratings for any particular Vendor or products as well too with recommendations or pictures and comments for the same has higher value too, so maybe integrate these in the app would get you more brownie points with the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, Pinterest and Linkedin or other Social media, the users are connected on on their respective phones.

The industries looking into such Apps are usually :

Finedine, Eateries or Restaurants

Taxi Services or Road maps for Self driven Vehicles looking for specifics on the route as well

Then there are Book (or eBook too) Lovers looking for a bargain

Parents of Jumpy Kids for Toys, Dresses and other kid related tidbits

Weddings Anniversaries and Birthdays or other Festival celebrations etc for offers could be pushed with the data on the app for the user too

Party hoppers and Movers and shakers looking for the Gifting and Flower, Chocolates, Cakes, Greetings etc as options

So on and So forth, there is no dearth of the ways it can be Un Ltd for use once you know which way you want to go and get the Attention of the user in a way which provides Value as well as Convenience too

Today the push is for mobile applications. With such technology, your refrigerator can message your cell phone when it’s time to buy Milk. If the application is location-aware, it could do this while you pass, or are at, the grocery store.
The next frontier for software development may just be Geolocation.

Click the pic above for the Article with more details. (Its Old but information is still valid today too – not reinventing the wheel here 🙂 )

At least 40 million people have checked in using a geolocation service (more than 30 million of those on Facebook Places alone). That’s enough to know the location will be an important component of marketing strategies. But it’s early enough for you to run a small pilot to determine what works without risking any brand equity. The knowledge you accrue now will be invaluable when checking in via Facebook Places becomes just as common as sharing a photo on Facebook.

In the next 18 months, your customers will be checking in to the places they care about. What are you doing now to be ready?

There are problems, though. While GPS capabilities are standard in smartphones, how applications interact with those GPS features is not.

Companies have to develop separate code bases to deal with GPS functionality for each supported interface, including native Android, iOS and the Web. While applications can ask “Where am I now?” asking for push notifications on arrival, or triggers, are not built directly into the operating system. To simulate them, companies have to re-invent the wheel, or, at least, build their own code libraries.

The pace of innovation in the handset world has slowed to a point at which the focus on extraneous pixel counts for smartphone cameras (I’m looking at you, Lumia 1020), fingerprint scanners that may or may not actually be secure (hi, iPhone 5s), cool-but-mostly-useless UI gestures (all of the latest Samsung Galaxy releases) and absurdly gigantic displays (take your pick of today’s “phablets”) The Latest Nexus 4 – 5 are among the most notable selling points for new phones. Or the other not mentioned brands as well too looking for Eyeballs with Lower rates higher Tech is getting cheaper too now what was costly some years back is relatively much cheaper today so the huge Switching habit of users would make you have the data stored for them on the new phone so look for Cloud options to continue on the new ones from where you might have left them off for your app once they download the App on the New phone yet again to continue.

General “newness” is also as powerful a selling point as any, as in “It’s the latest and greatest, so it must be better.” This last line of reasoning is a common one, especially among people who pride themselves on being tech-savvy gadget geeks. It doesn’t matter if it’s really a better device, it’s newer.
At the same time, there’s more pressure to upgrade more frequently: From the people around you, from companies selling smartphones and from wireless carriers.

Auto updates and Internet usage and Battery drain concerns apart, With Malware, Adware Trojans and Security a Major concern with the data moving to and fro for the users on their Phones you might need to also secure that part right in the start too for Good Measure!!

Some apps already available for specific TG too

Market-IP offers four (stand-alone or complementary) solutions to optimize your business’s mobility and meet its various needs

For a few APPS list check a consolidated one here

Hope this would be Helpful. Cheers!! and Good Luck!

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 22, 2013, 10:56 pm

Hi Darshan!!

This was a heavy dose of medicine for me. Thanks a ton for this, itll definitely improve my system. Got lot of insights. Would keep expecting the same.

I am working on the vendor acquisitions with the help of few interns.
The categories suggested by you is what exactly I have thought of. Infact I have met the officials at the police department to integrate this application and explained them the advantages that public could extract from this.

Hospitals are also on the list of things which I would add.

With regards to the battery consumption and the data usage which is something that I am planning to bear the cost of the devices distributed to vendors is a code that I need to crack.

I am still looking for strong support on technology front which I am unable to find.

I am also defining quality parameters based on survey ( the sample size is low currently ) with the consumers for all the categories that I want to bring onboard.

The only fear I have is that the operations are more people centric. Not too sure. So the scalability of the business as a whole is another code to be cracked.

Tracking the consumer purchases from any store in the app are also to be defined. As I have planned for charging a minimal percentage of markup for every walkin that happens from the app to the store subscribed.

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 22, 2013, 11:02 pm

If you were a smartphone user, why would you download this?

Would you download this?

Anoop SathyaMurthy November 22, 2013, 11:35 pm

Hi Jitendra,

Thanks for your input. Appreciate it!

Making this niche is very hard I think. The consumer perception and behaviour is very different from one zone to another. So I think its difficult for me to decide the category. There are lot of apps for services so I think I cannot start with services.

To begin with I have started my research on what the consumers want? What they actually look for apart from prices, then we would decide on the initial parameters and get the stores onboard. I have a strategy behind this which I will explain in the future posts.

Anoop SathyaMurthy February 7, 2014, 7:50 am

Launching soon in Bangalore!

Darshan Bhambiru February 7, 2014, 8:59 pm

Connect with Nitish Mehta @ The Rodinhoods CEO & Founder at Illuminative Works who is currently also working on Locate Caller | Call Tracking Application | Mobile Location | Call …

Locate caller Is an application which can Locate the Location of Caller

Also you can connect with Rahul Am @ The Rodinhoods of Dial2verify with various Mobile products currently being developed and already active too for Missed call verification,

AdShout – Simple Voice Broadcasting Solution,

Instantly host Missed call Polls / Campaigns for receiving User Feedback,

Open Source approach to One Time Passwords ( OTP ) ,

Callback (Click2Call) solutions at one fourth rate,

Two Factor Authentication ( Strict User Verification ) with just a …, And Geo Call Patching as well being explored as a separate or combined product /service.

Rahul Am February 8, 2014, 9:29 am

Thanks @Darshan for referring us.

@Anoop, Lets catch up on rahul dot am at dial2verify.in, would try to help as much as we can.. 🙂

Nitish Mehta February 8, 2014, 4:16 pm

Thankss Sir for refering us …!!!! and @anoop i am sending you request , i have something we can workout , also i can personally vouch for Dial2verify and Rahul , locate caller is using dial2verify and is amazing