How it all started?
About a year ago, when Rashika decided to send a birthday present to her college friend Karthik in Kuwait, she had a hard time finding a trustworthy website to deliver her gift. After a rigorous online research and recommendations from her friends who do a lot of online shopping, she finally was able to send the gift. This incident made both Rashika and Karthik realize that while everything is available online today, there is huge gap in the e-commerce market. They decided to solve this issue and thus was born Weblistr
Weblistr, India’s first and only e-commerce aggregator, and an online guide which intends to help users find the best and most trustworthy online businesses for their product/service needs. It cumulates useful information of e-commerce websites and apps across 20+ industries such as fashion, home décor, travel, food delivery, healthcare etc. Its rating system allows shoppers to rate their shopping experience with the vendor so to help the fellow shoppers taking precise decisions.
“Today there exists online solution to everything, literally everything. Whether it is shopping, hiring blue collar workers or even hailing a cab. Unfortunately, not many people are aware of these businesses. While researching, we came across so many online services that we didn’t know about- online tuitions, finding household help, home eye-check-up, train food deliveries, online bill payments and what not. That’s when we realized, ecommerce was so much bigger than buying mobile phones or booking flight tickets online. We were amazed. We decided to start a quest to popularize these start-ups and simplify people’s life. We built Weblistr.com”, says Rashika
The power of Niches
Weblistr believes in niches and specialists. If you have pain in your ears, you go to an ENT doctor, not to a general physician.Well there is something about specialists, isn’t it? Just like your healthcare needs your shopping needs are also specific. Then why shop from the some handful of websites for all your needs? Weblistr connects you to the most relevant online business that will fulfill your need in the best manner. For instance, if you’re looking to go on an adventure trip with a group of friends, the platform has travel websites specializing in adventure tours or group tours to help you. It will also provide you with basic information such as locations they serve in, fees, contact details etc. Once you’ve got your options, user’s rating/reviews can further help you in choosing the best service provider.
Mad over reviews
Today’s tech savvy and experimental generation use reviews and ratings as an important tool to make all their purchase decision, be it while trying a new restaurant or planning to watch a new release.
“I don’t remember the last movie I saw or smartphone I purchased without reading its reviews. Reviews are powerful. I’d love to have reviews for everything, including shopping websites and apps,” says Karthik.
Users can share their experiences with the delivery time, product/service quality, convenience, price points etc. on Weblistr, which eventually helps other users who want to buy from the same vendor. Reviews are an important word of mouth on the web. It helps users to make informed decisions from the first hand experiences of the other reviewers and thus reduce the hesitance of the people to trynew websites. Weblistr has a filtering and approval system to ensure that only genuine reviews are published on the website.
What’s in store for online businesses?
The portal helps online businesses to reach out to more potential customers and engage with them. Through the platform, startups can gain visibility and traction by promoting themselves. They can list themselves in their relevant category/sub category, manage the information that is visible to people, provide specific deals and keep a track of bookmarks and reviews for their business. They can also manage their online reputation by interacting with their reviewers. This way they can reward loyal customers and solve issues of unhappy customers.
Journey so far
Weblistr is a Nasscom 10k startup based out of Kolkata and Bangalore. Launched on 9th July 2016, it has already 1000+ reviews from 2500+ registered users on the platform. The numbers are growing each day. It has shared the startup stories of over 60 online businesses through its platform and blog.
“Starting as a work from home project with one intern, Weblistr currently is a 10-member strong family with average team member age being under 24 years.We are working hard each day to reach out to more people and to change the way India shops,” adds Karthik
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