TheIndiaMarket is primary a discount coupon site that showcases new deals across regular categories like lifestyle, groceries, sports etc. The difference this Bangalore based startup brings to the table is its focus on location and time.
For example, they have classified the deals based on time of the day, i.e. morning Deals/mid-day Deals/evening deals and are launching a van delivery service for grocery related items.
TheIndiaMarket has a compelling service for all your grocery buying needs – via a mobile app (link). Once you download the app (works with GPRS connection), TheIndiaMarket will get your location (they use Imere API) information and the company will deliver the items within 90 minutes (in Bangalore only).
To manage logistics, company has its own delivery vans (the service goes live on September 25th, the items are procured from sellers and the startup ensures the last mile delivery) and the areas for this operation at the initial stage are IT parks, Apartments, College hostels etc.
The company has implemented QR codes as well (you can send the picture to theIndiaMarket and they will send back the coupon via sms, i.e you don’t need a reader) and has SMS integration as well as call center support. An interesting part about their deal data collection is that they collect lat/long data for each deals and have launched a ‘deal map’ (integration with Google maps) as well.
My first impressions – too much of ‘fluff’. The team is trying to build multiple businesses within one business (they are launching a ‘group buying’ real estate service as well) that the ‘half baked’ approach shows up in the site (look at FAQs, its not even complete). Though I appreciate their solution selling approach, I believe the core needs to be a lot more robust before they foray into peripheral services (like delivery via vans).
What’s your take on the service?
