India's bargain psyche becomes business idea

Hyderabad: There may be many things that you have been dreaming about buying but could not buy just because they are costly. But image something that could alert you on discounts being offered on the things you have been wanting to buy or eat? Would you still stop yourself from not going? Definitely not!
Tapping into this Indian psyche of looking for the best deal for anything and everything, Zaggle has come into existence.

Although termed as a cashback company, its long-term aim is to use analytics and artificial intelligence to tap into the choices and preferences of a particular customer and provide them the best deal for their choice of goods or services.
Promoted by corporate gifting firm eYantra’s founder and serial entrepreneur Phani N. Raj, Zaggle launched its app three months ago which benefits the customers with cashback on every bill that they pay at food outlets. The cash back can be redeemed against more than 50-plus e-vouchers including mobile recharge, movie tickets and more from leading brands.

So how does it work? “The customer just has to upload a picture of their bill on our app and they will get reward points which will help them accrue points that can be redeemed as e-vouchers upon identified brand stores. However, it does not end here. We use our analytics to see the customer preference pattern and provide them customised offers after a certain period of time. We work on an online-to-offline model and at a time when many people are preferring to order food online, we are fostering the culture of eating out,” a passionate Raj said.

The whole idea of this personalised offers to customers came to Raj when he visited the famous Palika Bazaar in Delhi where any shoppers inadvertently ends up buying at least one item because of the discounts that the hawkers offer.
That is when Raj thought to use his own experience and growing technology to provide these kind of discount to customers for the branded retail stores and restaurants.

The company, which is completely bootstrapped right now, has already invested up to $2 million and plans to invest $8 million more in the business model in the coming future. The company which has over 1,400 outlets listed on its app in Hyderabad and Pune claims to be doing the opposite of what the many food delivery startups do and Raj does not view them as their competitor. Within six weeks of going live, Zaggle, available on Android and iOS platforms, has crossed 70,000 downloads.

Zaggle makes money through a specific commission from the discounts that the registered merchants provide to the customers. Going forward, it plans to get into most of the metropolitan cities and will be including groceries, fashion into its now only restaurant specific app. It will also be investing the money into innovative technologies and analytics. So next time don’t haggle, just Zaggle as Raj says!