Believe in your idea and vision and never give up attitude

-Sachin Lakharia,Shopnics.com

You never know when a simple idea can turn out be a great business opportunity, like Sachin lakharia 28, who got the concept of his website www.shopnics.com while shopping with his friends. Sachin a young entrepreneur of our country is having a great Passion to build products that makes people life easier.

All of us face problem to choose the best from the alternatives while shopping and then what we do, ask our friends and family and many times end up buying something which is not up to our expectation; Sachin got the solution for this problem and founded shopnics.com, it is a place where ‘people and product connect’. Shopnics AI Engine rates products based on their specification and user needs and then plots them on a visual graph where users can compare multiple products easily. Shopnics also aims to educate people about the products and their attributes.

Webneetech interviewed Sachin Lakharia to know more about his website and future plans.

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Founder  detail:

Name: Sachin Lakharia

Age: 28 yrs

Qualification: B-Tech Computer Science & Engg, IIT-Kanpur

Work experience : Worked for Ameriquest, one of the largest mortgage lenders and developed the AI based pricing engine; then moved on to work for Nextag the leading online comparison shopping engine in US. After that decided to move to India and start working on Shopnics.

Your strength area: Passion to build products that makes people life easier.

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Website  Detail:

Website Name:  www.shopnics.com

The tag line or punch line of  the  site: “Connecting People with Products”

Website URL: www.shopnics.com

When did you launch your business? Oct 2008

Short information about the business :

Shopnics is a place where ‘people and product connect’. Products are becoming more complex and consumers have if not 1000s but 100s of products to choose from, hence problems in decision making. Shopnics helps user’s to make an informed decision based on the product attributes. Shopnics AI Engine rates products based on their specification and user needs and then plots them on a visual graph where users can compare multiple products easily. The Social part of shopnics lets users ask their facebook friends for opinions and get advice in real time about a product.

Target audience: Techie, advanced to mainstream consumer using the web. For advanced user’s we have features like importance scale for each product specification. For an average user shopnics uses a default set of importance scale. Also supports a regular website look and feel.

Future/Expansion plans: Plans to expand to the India market. We would like to expand to areas like travel and nutrition.

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Company Detail:

Company’s Name: Shopnics

How much did you invest to start this business? $ 30K

Source of funding :Self Funded

Number of employees: 3

Number of branches: 1

Phone: 9620060551

Office Address: 108 Raj Paradise, Ranka Colony Rd, Off Bannerghatta Rd, Bellakahalli, Bangalore 76

Email ID: bizdev@shopnics.com

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Interview(Q & A Round):

Q: How did you start your business? What made you to think to enter into a business?

While in US and shopping for electronics, myself and friends faced problem deciding about a product with so many choices available. Hence came with the idea of easily compare multiple products.

With all the traditional websites focusing on price comparison and no good tool out for product comparison lead to the idea of Shopnics unique visual comparison.

Q: Tell us in detail about your business, your idea and how it can benefit others?

Shopnics AI Engine rates products based on their specification and user needs and then plots them on a visual graph where users can compare multiple products easily. The Social part of shopnics lets users ask their facebook friends for opinions and get advice in real time about a product.

Q: What are the important things which differentiate your business from other? What is your USP?

Unlike other comparison engine mainly focused on price comparison, Shopnics focuses on product comparison. Shopnics comparison is powered by the AI based decision engine in the background with a very unique visual decision graph on the UI side which makes comparing products fun and easy. We help user to make an informed decision about the products they want to engage with. Also it aims to educate people about the products and there attributes. We wish to be the one-stop shop for any questions related to electronics. With the social element added people can get advice in real time from friends.

Q: What is your revenue or business model?

Affiliate partnership

Q: In the next 5 year, what are your expansion plans and where do you see your business 5 years down the line?

We would like to collaborate directly with vendors and earn more on referrals; Also planning to expand into different markets like India and Europe. We would also like to expand our product categories and explore different areas.

Q: What were the biggest challenge(s) you faced in your journey as entrepreneur till now?

Marketing the product has been the biggest challenge. We know we have a unique and cool product and people who have seen have loved it. But getting the word out about the product to all the people has been the biggest challenge so far.

Q: What is the biggest mistake you made as an amateur entrepreneur?

We have not yet been able to build a good team. Being myself a hard code developer most of the time I did the development. Hence I am not able to spend time on product management and marketing. We have started the process to induce some good talent in our team.

Q: What you want to say to the new entrepreneurs or the one who wants to start his/her own business?

I would say believe in your idea and vision and never give up attitude is very important.

Q: Who is your business idol and why?

CEO and Founder at NexTag, Purnendo Ojha. He has been a great leader, excellent business acumen and a great visionary.

Q: What’s your ultimate business and life goal?

Nothing monetary but a product that may be used and appreciated by people all over the world.

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