Offline retailers can now take a sigh of relief

In September, when Bengaluru-based start-up Nifty Window had to buy a printer, like most of us, they searched online. However, even though a printer of their choice was available on leading e-commerce websites, they were not available for quick delivery. This is when they stumbled upon another website that showed a local dealer selling the same printer at a cheaper price. They located the shop, bought the printer at a price that was cheaper than what was on the website and were back, all in a matter of 30 minutes. And to their surprise, the content on the local dealer, which led them to buying the product, was powered by Nifty Window's services. 

Nifty Window is a local marketing platform that helps offline retailers to go online and thus, bridges the gap between offline and online retailing. For instance, a customer who wants to buy a branded watch is most likely to check it online these days. A number of e-commerce websites might appear before him offering the product in different prices. But if the same product is being sold at a cheaper price by a dealer or a retail store next to his/her location, the customer would prefer going to the shop, provided he/she has the time. Nifty Window gives online visibility to such retailers through its platform.

According to a report by Accenture in 2013, 65 per cent of customers in the US prefer'Webroom' shopping. This means they browse online and then head to a store to make their purchases. If this happens in a country after almost 15 years of online shopping, then that is what drives Sujit Thomas Zachariah and Rakesh Raghuvanshi, the co-founders of Nifty Window. 

"It is a myth that people who search online buy online. Usually, people go online in search of information and to compare the products. They get their information, but purchase offline,” said Zacharaih, who is also the CEO of the company.

Zachariah, who has a doctorate degree in Computer Science from the State University of New York and MBA from Yale University, has the experience of working with Yahoo!, Gartner, Intel and CGI. Raghuvanshi, also the chief marketing officer, comes with a two-decade experience in intergrated marketing from firms like Hyundai, Samsung, British Airways, etc.

In order to provide more visibility to a retail store, the start-up focuses on two main services. First, every store will have a website that is automatically created and managed. Second, they ensure the contents on these websites are automatically optimized to appear during local searches. To begin with, the platform offered by Nifty Window is one that has been technically integrated with yellowpage websites like Ask Laila, Bing, Askme and Getit. They also ensure that the content provided by them is mobile-optimized.

Since, it is a business-to-business service, one of the major challenge for Nifty Window is to attract small retailers. Hence, to start with, their focus now is on brands that has got chains across the country.

These days, brands do not have much play on yellow pages that offer details on local stores. However, with the help of Nifty Window, in addition to the brand website, each store offering the brand's products will also have a local website page. The store's Facebook page will also be powered by the same experience as on the website of the client.

Moreover, the GPS-powered search results through mobiles help customers locate nearby stores automatically. A store is also automatically tagged within 2-3km radius, thus ensuring maximum reach-out to customers. To add on, it also offers services such as locally-generated messages from a store to their clients in the local language and option to view contents in preferred language.

The start-up, which was incorporated in May 2013, but soft-launched in May 2014, currently, has more than 15 brands and 15,000 stores.  The bootstrapped start-up has now names such as Louis Philippe, Lufthansa, Nerolac and Pizza Corner on its client list. Nifty Window has got investor interests from both international and national players and is planning to raise'a few million dollars'.

So, are they here to challenge the e-commerce boom in the country? No, said Zachariah. "We are here to complement the e-commerce experience. We are an omni-channel retail solution.”