Especially during the holidays, we're all at risk of needing a last-minute gift — one that's available today and near you.
To help shoppers save time and mental health, a just-launched web app called Shopert is hoping to connect buyers with local retailers as an effective virtual shopping assistant. Launched just before Christmas week 2017, the app is an idea of a group of Northeastern alumni who meet every Saturday at Northeastern's accelerator IDEA.
"As a shopper, you have to go to the store, understand what's there, what things are being promoted, what's on sale," Rishi Palriwala, co-founder of Shopert, said in an interview. "We thought that there could be a better way for the shopper to find what's nearby."
Here's how it works. Users can access the link to the Shopert web app via smartphone, desktop or laptop. Upon landing on Shopert, users are asked to provide details of what they're looking for, including the price range. Then, the app connects users with a number of nearby stores that have items matching the description. After browsing the options, users can send a chat request and a sales associate may text back with more photos and details about the product. Finally, users can reserve the item and stop by the store to complete the purchase (Shopert doesn't manage online payments).
See a gallery of screenshots of the web app to understand how it works:
Gallery
Palriwala admitted that there's plenty of ways to get gifts recommendations out there. Just think of the millions of holiday gifts guides that media companies publish online every year - we did it at BostInno, after all - or the good old word of mouth, not to mention Amazon's recommendation algorithms. "We found that being able to connect with a real person, a human, and someone that is nearby is a nice combination," Palriwala said.
At the moment of the launch, the Shopert web app - currently in a public beta and free for users - had 2,500 user signups and a network of 50 stores in the Boston and the Cambridge area, according to Palriwala.
During the interviews that the Shopert team conducted before the launch, Palriwala said they noticed that men are the ones who struggle most with shopping. "We found that men are a little bit more mission-oriented when it comes to shopping and a little bit less experienced," Palriwala said. "Giving them a way to reach out to... a personal shopper at each store creates an easy way to get recommendations back."
