Shopsense brings comfort to retailers, consumers

About 85 retail stores in the country have something in common. They either have tablets or large touch screens within the store that customers walking in can use to search products in the store, see what garments and colour combinations match, or share their shortlisted items with friends on Facebook to ask for the friends' opinion. Behind this touch-screen software technology is a Mumbai-based start-up, Shopsense Retail Technologies which provides an interactive software application to help consumers make easier choices, while helping store owners in multiple ways.

The software application provides store-owners crucial insights on consumer behavior such as what products consumers are looking for, what colour combinations are now in vogue now etc, helping them know what to stock and what not. As the application is integrated into the point-of-sale device, retailers can also know which are the products that are actually selling.   

Shopsense was founded by IIT Bombay graduates, Harsh Shah, Farooq Adam and Sreeraman MG in October 2012. Early acceptance from retailers was encouraging. Shopsense now works with about 85 stores of brands like Global Desi, Satya Paul, Flying Machine and Big Bazaar Direct where the product is under paid trials. The biggest acceptance for the product has come from Being Human, the apparel brand associated with Bollywood star Salman Khan, which has deployed it across 15 stores in different cities.

Kunal Mehta, VP Business Development and Marketing at Being Human, says, "It's been an amazing experience for customers and we know this from better footfalls and more sales conversions." Kunal points out to the most attractive feature the software provides- customers can keep scrolling to see what dresses suit Salman Khan's personality. Being Human is expanding to about 33 stores by October this year and plans to deploy the touch-screens across all their stores.

The start-up which for now is targeting only large brands with at least 50 stores in a region, is also planning to reach markets like Middle East, Malaysia and Pakistan, plans to reach about 2000 stores in India by end of this year.

The 18-member team has raised funding of about half a million dollars from Mumbai-based Kae Capital and angel group, Powai Lake Ventures in April 2013.

Globally start-ups are innovating big on helping offline retailers get more technology savvy. US-based Nomi and Prism Skylabs are some of them. Nomi which has raised USD 13 million in funding from investors like Accel Partners, Greycroft Partners and First Round Capital, serves any business with a physical footprint- retailers, restaurants and stadiums. It provides applications such as those that can help retailers push discounts to loyal customers when they are close to certain products on shelves.

Another start-up is Prism Skylabs that has raised about USD 15 million from multiple investors like Intel Capital and Presidio Ventures. The company uses the footage from security cameras to provide retailers and other businesses analytical information like customer preferences, number of footfalls and conversions etc.