EXCLUSIVE: In conversation with Suhas Gopinath, World's Youngest CEO, on his new online-to-offline startup 'ShopsUp'

Suhas Gopinath is a name to reckon with in the startup world today, except it's ironical that he started his own company at a time when the Indian startup industry hadn't even taken off. In no time, Gopinath-led Globals Inc - an IT services company, was minting profits worth over $1 million annually and had 11 offices worldwide. For a 14-year-old college student to grow a bootstrapped firm from a small home office to a globally recognized multinational company based on the simple formula - a company's outflow cannot be higher than its inflow - was no mean feat.

But astounding success that would inspire Gopinath's entrepreneurial journey he is on today, really came when he was announced as the Youngest Global Leader in the World Economic Forum, Davos in 2008. From here started this Bengaluru lad's journey as the "World's Youngest CEO". There's no better way to learn about his inspiring journey than to hear him talk about the challenges he faced.

It's really no surprise that at the age of 22, a shy-natured Gopinath was sitting among the members of ICT Advisory Board of the World Bank Group headed by the World Bank President, discussing ways to increase internet penetration in Africa and use ICT for skill development in India.

As Gopinath enters a new phase in his entrepreneurial journey, Business Insider spoke to him about his second venture, how he plans on revolutionizing the retail space, what are his future plans and much more. ​Below is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation:

Tell us about your new online-to-offline startup Shopsup.
ShopsUp is a location based shopping app which acts as your personal shopping companion. It will recommend what, when and where to shop, and help you find the right products and stores in your neighbourhood. Whenever you want something specific, you can discover exciting boutique stores close to your location as well as stores at popular malls and shopping streets including brands such as Van Heusen, AND, Adidas, Pepe Jeans, Raymond, Allen Solly among others.

Who is your target audience?
India is second largest smartphone market in world in terms of users and increasingly consumers are turning to mobile to discover and research fashion trends and discover exciting consumer items. We are trying to reach young Indian millennial consumers with smartphone and influence their behavior while shopping and discovering local stores.

Why do you feel young Indian shoppers spoilt for choices online would prefer going to the local stores to make a purchase using Shopsup?
We are focusing on offline brick and mortar stores because statistics show that 98 per cent Indians still shop offline. Consumers still desire a physical interaction with a product and the preference for a physical store as an element of both researching and purchasing, especially for categories such as Fashion, Furniture, Jewelry, etc. The idea is to empower shoppers with tools and technologies so that we can make local stores discoverable, induce shoppers to walk into these stores and influence them to make a purchase.

How exactly are you planning to do that?
For every walk-in, we incentivise the ShopsUp user. In fact, we are the first app in India to incentivise a user for a behaviour, like window shopping. Let's say you want to buy a linen shirt. If you search for it on ShopsUp App, it will locate the stores around you which have linen shirts. As soon as you walk into one of them, you will get SHOTS irrespective of whether you make a purchase or not. SHOTS are points which you can accumulate to redeem later for movie tickets, cab rides, spa, gift vouchers, food court meals etc.

Would the user be required to install the ShopsUp App before walking into these stores?
No. There's a low-energy Bluetooth beacon in every store. If your phone's Bluetooth is switched on, you will get a message saying you have received X number of shots. For you to be able to redeem it, you will have to install the app.

...And why would stores partner with you? Apart from increasing their footfall, do they get any more benefits by partnering with ShopsUp?
Within six months, one of the achievements we have made is to build a natural monopoly by acquiring every brand. 80 per cent of India's brands are with us. We have partnered with 60 brands and 400 boutique stores in Bengaluru so far. So, a ShopsUp user is as spoilt for choices as much as an online shopper and is better rewarded than them.

To answer your question, brands want to be with us because they have a platform to re-target their customers. Also, stores do not have crucial data that can help them in taking the right business decisions. For instance, they do not know how many people walked into their store and how many out of them actually purchased an item. With Shops Up, they will be equipped with data that can help them identify which section is popular in their store, the frequency of their customers, how long does a shopper spend inside the store, what they purchase mostly etc. This data will help make the shopping experience more personalized. For example, ShopsUp will be able to predict that when person X purchases a Polo Shirt, it's very likely he also buys a denim. So, if he purchased a shirt a few days back, he will get a ShopsUp notification with a few denim options later.

Also, brands are excited because we offline re-target the customers for them. So, if you visit a Peter England store and then head to Arrow without making a purchase, you will get a push notification reminding you to come back to Peter England and pick up the item you liked.

We believe that the right offers delivered in the right context and right place can drive business for both organized as well as local retail establishments, and we are investing in analytics to offer best of the breed solutions to our partners.

What compelled you to kick-start ShopsUp?
Usually, if you want to buy something and you Google it, it will give you e-commerce website options. You cant wait for a product to be delivered when there's an urgency like a friend's wedding or mother's birthday. There are two reasons why one would want to buy anything online - either because it's inexpensive or you do not know where to buy it.

Personally, I am a very impatient person when it comes to shopping. I need things quickly. So, I thought to myself - Is there any way one can have an omni-channel experience where I can do the same thing I do online, except I will have the option of going to the store and picking it up. Also, because fashion and lifestyle is a segment where you need touch and feel, this model made a lot of sense to me. Since we didn't have any such platform in India, this is where the idea of ShopsUp came from.

How are you making money from this model?
Starting from behaviour to action, we are incentivising our user at every step. But, we don't make any money with that engagement. We charge brands a very nominal percentage for shopping via ShopsUp, but most of our money comes from brands. They buy inventory from us.

What are your plans for the near future?
We really want to focus on the product and user experience because for the brands there is excellent value proposition. We also plan to build a shopping bot.

So, if you haven't already started using ShopsUp yet, Suhas is offering you a new way to experience shopping. Get on to it, who knows you may get high on shopping like never before!