It is not usual for a hardcore business-to-business software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup in India to enter into something very typical of business-to-consumer (B2C) space – deals and coupons for online shopping. However, Capillary Technologies, among the most prominent enterprise startups in India that provides cloud-based omnichannel customer engagement to retailers and brands, has made the first move.
The startup recently launched its deals and coupons shopping app called DealHunt across more than 20 categories including fashion, beauty, food, health, travel, and electronics.
“We are the first SaaS company to venture into the deals space,” Capillary Technologies’ director of e-commerce Soumajit Bhowmik told FE Online in an interview. The app has an AI-powered back end that curate and showcase offer that are most relevant for users.
Majority of the brands that Capillary works with are from the B2C segment that helped it to understand how the B2C market works. “After having helped brands strengthen customer loyalty, DealHunt is an effort to help brands acquire new customers. At the same time, the end customers also benefit from the exclusive offers that Capillary brings to the table, said Bhowmik.
Capillary has partnered with 400+ brands for the app including Walmart, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Puma, Samsung, Unilever etc., that are already its customers. Apart from these brands, it is looking at new tie-ups as well.
First Mover Advantage
The market size is also significant. Large coupon and discount players in the industry generate between Rs 20 crore to 400 crore worth of business to brands based on the number of brands on-boarded, said Bhowmik.
Capillary will also launch a loyalty program, through which users can redeem loyalty points, probably in the second half of 2019. The company provides CRM and loyalty management solutions to more than 80% of all the popular brands across categories in the market,” the company said in a statement.
Coupon and deal market has close to a dozen startups in India including the leading ones such as CashKaro, MagicPin, CouponDuniya, GrabOn etc. However, Capillary might see an advantage for already having multiple brands on-board.
“Having top brands across different segments gives us a unique standing in the market. In addition to just listing deals, we will also be in a position to extend other metrics to brands such as how many first-time users through this app have gone on to become loyal customers. Insights like these actually help us show the complete picture to brands and adds much more value to this app,” said Bhowmik.
Capillary is now looking at a customer base of over 1 million by March 2019 through DealHunt.
[“source=financialexpress”]