World’s first Multi Vendor, Multi Product Experiential Shopping Solution

“Experiential Shopping”, “Experiential Marketing” & “Experiential Purchase” refers to the new age idea of Retailers helping Consumers to Buy an Experience rather than just an object or service. This will help enterprises to foster customer loyalty & improve Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) as the customers form memorable & emotional connections with the brand.

The business world in the competitive era is ready to embrace new technologies like Augmented Reality in segments like Travel, Architecture, Gaming, etc. in order to meet the business requirements, accelerate business activities, provide experience to customers & compete with others. “Pokemon Go” can be quoted as a perfect example of how Augmented Reality seamlessly merges the ‘Reality with Virtuality’

Breathing and walking in the age of digital era, Amrutha Valli’s “PurpleApple Infosystems” is the result of the impeccable usage of such technologies. She dedicates her time in creating AR products for businesses to help them in their future endeavours. Why not learn and imbibe from her the art of using AR in varied fields and also curbing many persistent issues of the consumers. Inventiva’s team feels proud to present before you excerpts of their communication and valuable inputs given by Amrutha in her own words.

1. What is the Name of Your Venture? Any specific reason for this name?

PurpleApple Infosytems is the name of my venture. “Purple” colour stands for Creativity, Wisdom & Imagination & “Apple” as everyone knows is an Iconic word which disrupts the world .

“TRYb4uBUY” is an innovative solution from PurpleApple Infosystems to provide EXPERIENTIAL SHOPPING to customers.

2.Who is your target Audience/clients?

“TRYb4uUY is a Multi Vendor, Multi Category Experiential & Discovery Solution based on Augmented Reality”. This is a B2B2C solution. Our target clients are any Enterprise(s) :

• Dealing with products which can be tried by customer like Jewellery, Apparels, Furniture, Furnishings, Floors & Tiles, etc.,

• That thinks of Customer FIRST & prioritize Customer Satisfaction by providing delightful Experience

3.Where is your venture based (city, state, country) out of and what are your geographical target areas?

PurpleApple Infosystems (https://www.purpleappleinfo.com) is based out of Delhi, India. We are targeting metropolitan & SMART cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mysore, Pune, Chennai etc.,

4.What problems does your venture resolve? What are your products or services?

Experiential Marketing : Helping the Consumers Experience the product virtually. This will help enterprises to foster customer loyalty & improve customer lifetime value (CLV) as the customers form memorable & emotional connections with the brand.

‘TRYb4uBUY’ is both an online & mobile applications which allows the users to TRY items like Jewellery, Furniture, Furnishings, Tiles, Decorative items, etc., before they BUY. This is an Discovery & Experiential solution.

Through ‘TRYb4uBUY’ solution, we are bridging the gap between offline & online market in terms of Customer Experience.

5.Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it come to existence? What motivated you to start your own venture?

With the Digital age & hectic jobs, people prefer to purchase online sitting on the couch thinking that it is hassle free. But, bigger question is – Is it really hassle free ? It is very taxing to imagine how a dress suits you or which jewellery goes with which dress or which furniture goes with the existing decor & especially when there are millions of products.

Mental toll of Decision Fatique & analysis paralysis might be because of making 35,000 conscious decisions a day.

This is where TRYb4uBUY comes to the rescue by adding a third dimension, an Experiential dimension.

Also, this is the age of Millennials where they depend more on online shopping & do not want to waste time to visit physical shops to purchase items. They expect a certain level of experience even in the physical stores & this expectation is one of the reasons behind success of huge shopping malls.

Next revolution is the Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence.

In this digital age, Experience & Emotions are diminishing day by day & I would like to address this by a solution which can Engage, Entertain & provide Experience to customers.

Retailers prefer to have SMART solution & TRYb4uBUY is the best fit. It’s Simple to configure & use, Market friendly, Affordable, reduces Returns, Technology oriented, also helps them to dominate the E-Commerce Industry. The more the customers are Happy, the more the profits for the retailer and longer customer loyalty to the brand.

6.Who are your biggest competitors and how do you differentiate yourself from them?

There are few competitors in the space of providing solutions for 2D images like Jewellery, Spectacles, but NO competitor exists for 3D products like Furniture & Furnishings :

• Most of the solutions are made for a particular product either spectacles / jewellery / apparels where as TRYb4uBUY will address any product which can be tried including Furniture, Furnishings, Home Decor, Floors & Tiles etc.,

• Existing solutions are either Online / Offline, TRYb4uBUY is both Online & Offline (In-store) experience

• Existing solutions for Spectacles & Jewellery works on Autofit mode, customer cannot try 2 or more Necklaces or try with different Earrings with the same necklace. TRYb4uBUY has both the modes of AUTOFIT & Self-Trial where multiple products can be tried at the same time

7.How did you identify your co-founder? Tell us something about your co-founder/s

PurpleApple Infosystems is the brainchild of Amrutha Valli who is the single founder & CEO. She has more than 20+yrs of Corporate work experience with Wipro & TTSL. She is an MCA (Gold medallist) with Development & Security Consultant experience. She has successfully completed many green field projects like mRUPEE (Mobile Payments), defined Data Security & Privacy Frameworks for Data Security Council of India (NASSCOM Initiative) before starting the venture.

Her passion for technology with creative & innovative mindset is the result of her entrepreneurial venture.

Amrutha has got the opportunity to get selected by IIMB, IITD, XLR8AP Entreprenuership & Accelerator programs. Amrutha was awarded as “Women Entrepreneur of the year 2018” by Delhi Management Association & cohort member of “SheLeadTech 2019” by Facebook.

8.How did you hired your first team members? What skills do you want in your employees/team?

“Hire Character ! Train Skill !” this is what exactly we followed. We have not just recruited 2 employees, but started the seeds of reputation with them. We hired interns from different colleges, trained them with the required technologies. As of now, we have a small team of young professionals with various backgrounds of IT.

In startup world, it is extremely important to have employees who are quick learners, have out of the box thinking, flexible & adaptable in doing multiple jobs as per the market demands.

9.What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?

In the next 2 years, our plan is to become a ‘Billion Rupee’ organisation . we want to penetrate to B class cities & gain reputation. We would like to include Artificial Intelligence which provides the fashion tips & suitability based on the consumer & buying profile.

In the next 5 years, our plan is to extend this to kiosk’s, Google Glass, Microsoft Hololens, virtual trial rooms.

10.Where do you want to see yourself in next 10 years?

With the inclusion of latest technologies, we will like to grow globally & become Unicorn.

11.What are your immediate goals over the next 1, 3, 6 and 12 months?

We are currently focusing equally on onboarding enterprises & acquiring customers through different engagement models. We are working towards incorporating features which provides immersive customer experience & are constantly in touch with enterprises & customers.

12.Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?

PurpleApple Infosystems is bootstrapped as of now & are open for funding opportunities who believes in technology & understands the importance customer experience for future generation.

13.What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?

Any startup faces similar challenges of understand the consumer behaviour, needs & demands. After initial survey, we have customised the platform & developed multiple channels for the customers to try products – E-Commerce web portal, mobile applications.

Few of the Enterprises already have either E-Commerce portals or mobile applications, plugins are developed which can be integrated easily without disturbing the existing business model.

Also, I also had to go through all the teething problems of resources, time & expertise in running an startup the way others had gone through 

14.What was the most challenging part of your journey till now? How did you overcome those challenges?

Being a startup, journey is full of challenges & surprises which are to be handled as they come. Most of the times taking a decision is choosing between what to do & what not to do. Thinking of having an product which is ahead of times is challenging in both development & execution.

Focusing on the goal, open for criticism & suggestions, patience, being flexible & adaptable to the situation is my success mantra.

15.What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?

I love to do meditation & walk in spiritual path. Along with this, I love cooking & traveling to new places around the world.

16.Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?

I take inspiration from all the women who has broken the glass ceiling like Ms.Indira Nooyi, Ms.Debjani Ghosh.

17.What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?

Working for an employer gives the employee little opportunity to innovate or use creativity in any task. Working for self has lot more freedom & flexibility to explore new ways of doing tasks, but of course risk of failing is the hidden problem in entrepreneurship 

18. If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?

Each role played by me in world class organisations like Wipro & TTSL has been a learning experience which I am using them to be a successful entrepreneur. I am happy with the way the things are going.

19.How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?

I think, Entrepreneurship journey is similar to spiritual journey where there is no start or end  & obviously no time limit. Managing both personal & professional life is the skill which the entrepreneur learns over a period of time.

20. Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?

Being Entrepreneur, one gets an opportunity to change the lives of many people viz., associates, employees & business at large. An Entrepreneur should be willing to take the responsibility of consequences of every decision taken in the journey.

Be Growth oriented rather than Goal oriented as Growth leads to Goal.

21.Tell us something about your education & family background.

I am from Andhra Pradesh, but almost settled in Delhi for more than 15 years. I am MCA (Gold Medalist) from Mahila University, Tirupati, worked with Wipro & TTSL for 20+yrs. I am a security consultant & was involved in multiple green field projects like mRUPEE (Mobile payments), Data Security & Privacy frameworks for Data Security Council of India (NASSCOM Initiative)

22.What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other start-ups in similar domains.

“Innovation” & “Creativity”

23. What do you think is the biggest threat to the success of small businesses & Start-ups today?

Undoubtedly, entrepreneurship is a complex phenomenon, where both internal & external factors impact business performance. Many times, the startup ideas is been eclipsed by the money power & reach of big giants like Google, Apple, Microsoft, facebook. The entrepreneur has to think of deviating from the idea or start innovating quickly something different.

24. Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?

We are on the road to success & yet to be measured

25.Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person
a. Complete name – PurpleApple Infosystems LLP 
b. Phone Number — +91 9818438355
c. Email id & website of Your Business- https://www.purpleappleinfo.com
d. Contact Person details – Amrutha Valli, Founder & CEO