Is India ready to pay for a ‘Lowest Price’ service ?

By Shilpi Choudhury on August 2, 2012 11 Comments / 2626 views

On 31st July, 2012 , we launched a first of its kind app called AskThePandit. It is a paid service in which users have to pay a nominal amount to get the LOWEST PRICE.

We do all the running around and the hopping from one e-commerce site to another and find the best price for the product. Users thus, save on both Time & Money.

In case an user finds a price lower than what we have to offer, we return his / her entire amount without any question.

Currently the service is available for 6 categories- Mobiles, Computers, Home Appliances, Televisions, Air Tickets and Hotel Bookings under 3 price brackets- Rs.11/-, Rs.21/- and Rs.31/-

The Trial version is Free for all users.

What’s your take on the application ?

Here’s the link to AskThePandit – https://discountpandit.com/

Comments

Shilpi Choudhury

11 Comments

Puneet Sharma August 3, 2012, 3:36 pm

Askthepandit , looks good……. but paid 🙁

I don’t think its time for a paid service to help shopping. Imagine going shopping with a GUIDE … whom you pay, every time you buy an item.
Vamsi Vutukuru August 4, 2012, 5:07 pm

My hunch: Very few if any, will pay for the service as its structured right now. The paid service has to be very very superior. For ex: I spend about a day’s worth time to plan a vacation. I am willing to pay someone who “gets” what I am looking for, and essentially gives me a reasonable package without me spending more than 30min explaining what I want, reviewing what’s given to me and finalizing the package. Basically I am willing to pay for a personal assistant kind of service – the assistant takes care of flight, cab, hotel etc.

Essentially you need to up level the service to something reasonably complex. Only then it’s valuable (at least to some). And people may pay more than 100 bucks for that. It’s difficult to show value when you are dealing at a transactional level.

Btw, I am curious to know how this service is doing. Would like to understand who ae the customers who are using it and why? Would be great if you can share that info.
Sai Rodinhood Pothuri August 4, 2012, 6:06 pm

Good to know about this.. congratulation to your entire team and by the way coming to the pricing what ever the price 11,21 and 31 is not a big amount at all.

because the main issue is we waste lot of money for unorganized issues and we worry about single penny when we are trying to work on a organized one.

so the point is simple. we save time and get a good deal which is cheapest in market.. then we buy the item and pay you the respected amount to you. if we found the same item much cheaper than what we got then we get our money back right and out of all its just 11, 21 and 31 small amounts

All the Best

Thanks

Sai
Shilpi Choudhury August 5, 2012, 4:59 am

Hi Puneet,

Thank you for your feedback.

The service is ‘Paid’ because it is one way we can filter serious buyers. Plus we are helping the user save on both Time and Money ( not to forget in today’s times Time is also Money).
Shilpi Choudhury August 5, 2012, 5:07 am

Hi Vamsi,

Thank you for your feedback.

Going forward, we are planning to develop AskThePandit into an application which covers more services/products and offers comprehensive solutions. In its present form, we are primarily trying to test and understand the market.

The response so far has been quite satisfactory with queries coming in from across all the three price categories.

Do give it a try once and let us know your feedback
Shilpi Choudhury August 5, 2012, 5:10 am

Hi Sai,

Thank you for the encouragement 🙂

Do try out the service and share your feedback. Will look forward to it !
Sasikanth Chemalamudi August 5, 2012, 8:29 pm

Shopping is an exercise that is exciting for many, to do it themselves.

However, it might still work since you offer some kind of service guarantee. However, before paying you, a customer might want to know minimum. details about the return on investment. How much would he or she save if they pay you? You might have to quantify this (both money and time) and present it in an attractive manner. Also, given the amount you are charging, a customer might find it more convenient to pay you from his mobile phone credit than from his credit card.

Still, the burning question for me is if you would be able to built up the volumes, especially since your pricing is nominal. You might have to thoroughly work on A) the categories (maybe, items where a user needs expert advice and not just low price) and pricing (a % of the savings, maybe?).

Looks like a very interesting topic to discuss and debate more! All the best.

Sasikanth Chemalamudi, http://www.thefirstcrore.blogspot.in
Shilpi Choudhury August 6, 2012, 6:43 am

Hi Sasikanth,

Really valuable insights ! We will keep in mind the points and try incorporating them as we go.

Thanks 🙂
Milan Bavishi August 9, 2012, 11:02 am

wow. good analysis Sasikanth.

showing cost:benefit analysis would be a good idea, when U are charging for a product/service.

it can increase the probability of sales.

Thanks for the advice.
Manish Golchha August 27, 2012, 9:49 am

good concept, just need to educate people how its going to benefit them…!!!
Bharat Agrawal August 27, 2012, 11:24 am

Nice concept….Though Curious..>how do you track user activity that whether he purchases from the link you sent.

Actionable Acts: You can tie up with some online websites for referals (get commission in return). Special onetime coupons can be distributed with the initials “ATP”.

your TAM: Those who are comfortable paying online. What abt those who are not. May be mobile credit is not bad at all as suggested by Sasikanthji.

Whats the procedure for refund. The patron can ask for refund if he is not finding the item cheap enough.

BTW I tried ATP application but found better deal myself. The reply though quick was not the cheapest. Best of Luck.