I wanted to become an entrepreneur straight out of college: Sameer Grover

With retailers increasingly looking at establishing online presence, online to offline (O2O) solution providers are being echoed in today’s retail environment. Changing the need of creating a website to step into online, such O2O models have created a niche in the market.

In the current retail scenario, where having an omni-channel approach is a must-do for most brick-and-mortar retailers, the rationale for O2O impend can be to either their online sales or to deliver a more real experience for customers.

Sahil from Retailer Media caught up with Sameer Grover, Founder & CEO, Crownit, an app-only, local merchant discovery and privileges platform to know more about the ongoing trends and potential of O2O services in the coming future.  He also spoke about how Crownit enables local businesses to create specially curated deals depending on consumers spending habits and preferences.

Please share your background. 
I am a graduate from Delhi College of Engineering. The quintessentially ‘product’ person, has to his credit an extensive experience in creating and marketing software products for large enterprises as well as Small & Medium businesses in US and India. I have worked at leadership positions in organizations like Apollo Health Street (Heritage), MphRx and Knowlarity, prior to which I was working with Epic Systems Corporation in Wisconsin from 1999 to 2005.

It was always my dream to create my own company. My biggest regret in life is that I should have become an entrepreneur straight out of college.

Talk to us about Crown-it App and its features?
Crownit is an app-only, local merchant discovery and privileges platform. It operates an O2O (Online to Offline) platform that allows local merchants to list themselves and attract consumers. It helps consumers with buying decision by offering them curated and personalized eating out and shopping options based on their spending habits, interests and social data, with cash back benefits. The cash back to customers is credited to their closed Wallet, which the customer uses for talk-time, Bill Payments, Online Shopping, Movie tickets, Charity etc. Crown-it enables the merchants to create customized deals – which are dynamic, local and targeted to specific audiences based on their gender, location, spending and eating habits, and day of week & time of day etc. 

How has been the customer response so far?
The response has been overwhelming. Crown-it, over the period of one and a half year, has presence in 3 cities with over 10000 listed local merchants, a strong user base of over 6,00,000 on Android, iPhone and Windows. The company initially started with covering Food and Beverage sector, eventually leading itself into varied categories like Health & fitness, Beauty & wellness, weekend Getaways, Pharmacy and Diagnostics, Fashion, Movies and Special Experiences.

How has been the segment wise response? Which segment (personal, F&B, medical etc) has shown high traction?
FNB which is our oldest segment has received the greatest response and is driving maximum business for us. The other categories that have come later are also showing promising growth. 

Explain the usability of this app?
Crownit is a very user friendly and habit forming product. The app has a simple process flow and does not require any extra effort on the consumer side to earn cashback. It is as simple as clicking a picture of the bill. The simplicity and ease of use add to the charm of this binding app. 

How well have customers engaged with local businesses using the app?
Crownit enables local businesses to create specially curated deals depending on consumers spending habits and preferences. This provides a very gratifying experience for the customers. We constantly innovate and work on gamifiying the app to make it a fun and engaging app.

Is there a story behind the name, you have given to your business?
The name 'Crownit' originates from the childhood game of collecting crowns of cola bottles to get free gifts. We have adopted the principle model of the same game.

How do you see growth scenario in this business? What are your future scale-up plans?
At present, we drive a monthly GMV of $5.5Mn. By mid 2016, we are planning to expand to other categories like airlines and more. We are targeting to have 20 million users and drive $1.2Bn of annual GMV across 25 cities in India by 2019.

Have you raised any funding so far. What are your plans to use this funding for?
Crown-it had raised series-A funding of $5.5Mn from Accel partners and Helion ventures in May-2015. The funds are required to grow as a company and expand to different cities.