ELIMINATING THE PAIN POINTS OF SHOPPING OFFLINE THROUGH TECHNOLOGY.

Even as the penetration and patronage of online store continues to soar, a large percentage of the Nigerian population relies heavily on offline stores and businesses to take care of their everyday needs, ranging from purchase of goods and products, down to getting a desired service.

Data has shown that customer conversion and return rate for offline stores is over 35%, compared to 5% for online stores. However, the large traffic and footfall enjoyed by offline stores, does not mean that all is well with customer satisfaction and operation.

The average offline shopper is faced daily with a list of problems and pain points. Chief of which includes, the inability of ascertaining in advance, whether the numerous retail outlets around them are in possession of the exact product they intend to purchase.

Also bargaining to get products and services at a fair price can be very frustrating and difficult. Merchants are often fond of hiking the price of their products, which inevitably leaves the consumer with the herculean task of price haggling. This ends up wasting the valuable time and energy of consumers.

Additionally, the conventional way of accessing offline retail establishments, suggests that offline shoppers have little or no means of getting notified of great offers, new product arrivals, flash sales, and such other sales discount and information in real time, unless they are physically present in these stores.

Having to physically visit multiple stores to compare prices and discounts, involves the consumer wasting a great amount of time and energy.

Research have shown that people dislike shopping (offline) because its time consuming. Stores sometimes can be crowded and the check-out process especially in malls is far from seamless. Waiting at long queues is frustrating.

THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY

Zwapit, a free business messaging app, provide shoppers with a big advantage. Considering today’s busy lifestyle, consumers can shop for anything, wherever and whenever, with their smartphone. Instead of wasting valuable time and energy, looking around for products, they can simply search for the particular item on their mobile phone and CHAT directly with the store owner, place their orders, and make payment for purchases, all through Zwapit. They can elect for their goods to either be delivered to them or they can decide to walk in and pick the items from the store, thereby making check out instant.

Once logged in on the app, a user can see the list of shops and service providers in their vicinity, within a decent enough radius, from the nearest to the farthest. The app is also location aware, it uses GPS to detect the user’s immediate location and it provides the exact address and direction to the businesses around them. The user after selecting his required service or business can now place his order, or make his enquiries, and chat with the business provider in real-time. This allows them to clarify their doubts about the product well in advance and to mention some specific requirement if there’s any, before stepping out.

Zwapit give consumers a better bargaining power. Shoppers can better haggle over prices through the CHAT platform, as they are not in haste. They get to make sound judgement on what to pay and what not. This in essence ensures that they pay the right price for products, as chatting provides a better atmosphere for proper bargaining.

In addition to these, Zwapit further guarantees an avenue to properly compare prices among retail establishments around a consumer. Consumers via the app have access to the list of all local stores and businesses around them, and in minutes, they can chat with them all to compare prices on products,before making a decision to buy. Thus Zwapit, by its very nature, ensures that consumers always get to pay the lowest price on every product and services.

We, at Zwapit, are at fingertips to disentangle all problems associated with shopping offline. In doing these, we aim to use a simple medium that virtually every class of shopper is familiar with, we aim to use CHAT as a technology to revolutionize offline shopping.

Save your time, energy, and money by conveniently taking care of your shopping With Zwapit. Use Zwapit and benefit immensely.

We are presently in private-beta and available only in Lagos. Sign-up and we would invite you to try out ZWAPIT.

The time is ripe for technology to come in and change how things work. We look forward to revolutionizing local commerce with you.

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