Lately, it seems that everyone’s most productive activity is shopping. Perhaps it’s an activity that no one can disagree with simply because it gives that therapeutic comfort of well-earned money spent, thrilling anticipation for packages of online purchases, or a convenient excuse to catch up on what’s new in fashion with good friends.
Whatever it is, we can all agree that there’s nothing wrong with doing some feel-good shopping from time to time. That is why this app is going to be a breakout app that you and your friends might want to be prepared for when shopping.
Shoppr is a new Malaysia-made mobile shopping experience that will be launched in the near future. While you usually browse your favourite online shopping sites one-by-one on your mobile phone or tablets’ web browser app, this app will simplify your browsing experience with just one application. Impressed yet?
A Story Of Shopping In-Convenience To An App Idea
It all started with a group of three friends, who first met in 2010 when they were in college. After graduation, they did not keep in touch until 2013. According to Sylvia, Chief Marketer at Shoppr, they were all doing their own things by then.
“Ken was doing development projects, Nik was building his design themed apps and I was up in her eyes reading and experimenting on behavior economics and social psychology”, Sylvia told Vulcan Post. But while all three have lived overseas, and they used their experience to “bring some of what (they) learnt to Malaysia”.
Then, about a year ago, they turn to their mobile phones to do some clothes shopping. When browsing the sites they wanted to buy from, they realised that they had to key in their details and credit card information every time they entered a different site. It became an inconvenient and tedious process. While some brands try to connect better with the customer by creating they’re own mobile application that stores payment info for future purchases, it still meant that mobile shoppers had to download a few hundred mobile apps on their phone.
The three friends set out to talk to brands and users to see what people wanted when they do their shopping on-the-go. The answer was simple: people are being bombarded with so much information, and it was a time to step back and decluster everything. No more squinting your eyes to key in your details into this one site, no more typos or little annoyances that stands between you and your purchase. They found out a way to make shopping from any brand and making a payment through a one-step checkout possible.
Building An App They Love And Persevering Throughout
The Shoppr team has been doing extremely well. With three consecutive wins – at AngelHack Kuala Lumpur, at D3 Hackathon and recently, the MYDD AT&T Hackathon, the team is set to be stronger than ever.
When asked what did the team learnt from winning these awards, Sylvia made it a point that they were a team that worked well with each other and a team that you can trust. But, in a startup environment, knowing how well one can work with someone else under pressure and how well one can deliver under stress is vital. There were moments that they wanted to just give up.
Sylvia says, “Mentors would come around and tell us our idea is horrible or our approach is wrong, and feedback like that was demotivating enough to make us want to quit. But we absolutely dislike giving up, so we took those comments and found a way to make it work. It was tough and it was stressful, but if we were given a choice, we would do it all over again.”
Back when the team was in the process of pitching their idea, everything felt like it was happening rather quickly. When asked how a team sticks together despite the challenges, Sylvia explains, “We were incredibly lucky to have a team that is good at what they do and extremely motivated. We were moving so quickly we told ourselves we needed to take a step back or risk burning out. To tackle this, we listed everything we wanted to do in the next 2 years and broke it down into months, features, and releases to be released systematically and quickly, without compromising on quality”.
There were also a few times when the team experienced something scary whenever they thought about the opportunities they have given up to focus on what they wanted all along.
“We had these amazing offers from reputable companies from United Kingdom, Australia and even China and here we are saying no to all these to focus on Shoppr,” Sylvia said, “We are passionate about it, we love the idea, we have spoken to brands and users, we have a great team and investors interested, but starting a startup is an irrational decision. The rational decision would be to take a 9 to 5 job, work your way up to a comfy position and settle down, but each of us realised that was not what we wanted. We want to solve a problem, make lives easier and love what we do in the process”.
Sneak Peek On The App Shoppr
According to the Shoppr app site, using the Shoppr app only takes four steps:
Look: With their single product display for a clearer look at what you’re buying.
Swipe: Right for yes (and straight into your wishlist), left for no thank you. (Doesn’t this sound like Tinder?)
Discount Notifications: Because you never want to be caught off guard by a sale!
Buy: With a consolidated checkout for all the different brands you can find.
For every shopper out there, here is a little inside scoop we have on what to expect once the app has been rolled out!
They are debuting something every girl needs to keep cool in Asia – the dress. There will be more shopping to do as the app is set to feature over a hundred brands of dresses. Shoppers will be able to choose the types of dresses either for work, midi, or muslimah and also choose the colours that suit them best. The special perk: when adding a dress into the “WishList”, the app will notify you whenever the dress goes on sale. You’ll never freak out over an unexpected sale ever again – Shoppr will make sure you will never have to miss out on an exciting discount.
The app has yet to be released, but if you’re really intrigued by Shoppr and want to try it out, you can request an invite today at their Facebook page.