How Something Crazy Made Me An Entrepreneur

Another year has gone by and tonight is one of those nights at the start of a year, when you think about all the crazy things you have done during the past year. It’s already 2am in the morning and while most of us are sleeping and dreaming in this chilling January night in Delhi, I am sitting working in front of my laptop and writing this post on how I started GoShoppin.in.

Sometimes, few incident in life makes you do few crazy things that can change your life.

How It All Started?

I, with my friend Rakesh were once looking for a florist at Connaught place to buy bouquet for wedding reception of a friend. If you haven’t visited Connaught place, then you should know that it’s one of the big shopping destination in Delhi, spread across more than 100 acres. We followed the conventional approach first, by asking local people like stall owners, shoppers, street vendors and store security guards to help us locate a florist. This approach gave us few leads but the shops were closed by the time we reached there. This approach is good, but the information local people provide can be limited and and inaccurate.

We had already burnt lot of time by following this conventional approach and were left with very less time with us, so we thought of giving a cash envelope, if we wouldn’t find a florist, as our last resort. Sometimes less resources makes your mind give smart suggestions and Rakesh suggested to search on Google for florist at Connaught place.

Then, we used Google to search for florist in Connaught place, search results were phenomenal. We accessed most of the links and found some shocking observations noted down below.

• Unverified information: Store information displayed was wrong and unverified. There was no information on business hours for some of listed stores. We tried calling them using the listed phone numbers, but most of them were unreachable or did not exist.
• Inaccurate location coordinates: Store location coordinates provided or displayed on websites were very inaccurate. I remember visiting a store which was actually 200 meters far from the pinned location.
• Updated Listings: We also visited a store which was closed 6 months ago and its listing was available on websites with open status. This showed a lack of inclination towards updating store listing database.
• User Experience: While the world is working on to follow best design practices and user experience principles to provide best browsing experience to users. These websites still follow concrete data listing pattern usually found in yellow pages sort of directory book.
• However, we ended up buying bouquet from a store located on one of the listing websites. But, the amount of time wasted in using conventional and so-called modern methods calls for a solid and reliable product that can solve this big problem of local search.

Eureka moment — This incident got me thinking of creating a product that can provide simple and reliable solution to this problem of finding a store.

Thinking of an idea is easy task but creating a solution using that idea to solve defined problem is not.

We did a lot of research on business models, conceptualized way to leverage technology, held discussions with friends and family, did surveys with shoppers and literally asked everyone that came to our sight for suggestions and feedback. After all the chaos, discussion and analysis we jotted down major points provided below that can help shoppers shop conveniently. We then used these points as pillars for GoShoppin.in, to make store search convenient for shoppers.

• Authentic Data: Information displayed on our platform is authenticated and verified as it is directly collected from stores or from reliable sources. Geocoded store location provides maximum accuracy in locating a store and getting directions.
• Updated Data: Store information provided on our platform is updated every 4 months to ensure that you get right information every time making sure that data integrity always exist.
• User Interface: Interactive map-based representation of stores, geocoded location to provide direction, smart-location capture mechanism and search-by-keyword provides effective store search experience.
• Store Updates: Store details includes photos, videos, map location, website, contact details and social profiles to know about stores and engage with them.
• Shopper Content: Provides best content and details to shop at best places in Delhi. Whether to buy a leather jacket or shoes near your house or at any near market. We will have recommendation for you to have a good shopping experience.

We know that it is not easy to solve a problem that’s plaguing since ages. But we believe that a step towards right direction is a step closer to your goal. In the coming course of time, we will be working on making this solution better. But, we’ll need your help on this, use this product and send us your valuable suggestion on how we can solve this problem together. Would love to hear your suggestions and feedback, reach me here at twitter or contact.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.