Around You Case Study

Primary Research: - 50+ user interviews, 10+ partner interviews of Magicpin and Nearbuy
Secondary Research: - Reviews on Play Store, Apple app store and various other review websites
Major Competitor:- Nearbuy, MagicPin
List of improvements/New Features: -
Category 1: - Need Gap Fulfilment leading to User Retention
1. Book a slot: -A major pain point is the operator refuses to accept the coupon (Primary research).
Once the coupon is bought the user will get an option to book a time slot and the partner would have
to accept or reject it.
2. Push Notifications/SMS/Email for Coupon Expiry: - Users complained that there was no
notification about the coupon expiry (Secondary Research). We would be taking a Golden 3
approach. The user will be informed 3 times via 3 channels within last week of expiry.
3. 3D- View of the store: - People can put on their VR set and get a 360 view of the store/restaurant as
one pain point of users is they want to have look and feel. (Primary Research)
4. Simplification of the App UI: - Many users said that the UI was overcomplicated (Primary and
Secondary Research). Much more simplistic UI needs to be designed.
Category 2: - Creating Awareness & Customer Acquisition
1. AroundYou Photoframe at Every Partner: - User clicks a picture standing in the frame, the app
would convert it into Bitmoji like image and share it on social media with hashtag “#ChillingAround
You” and the location of the place and get a cashback on the amount of coupon bought.
2. Extra points on Group Buy: - If you invite your friends to buy the coupons along with you and all
of the people use a common code to buy a coupon they get additional Aroundyou cashback.
Category 3: - User Engagement
1. Gamification: - A separate section where the user can play some game (similar to candy crush,
spearman etc.). User can see his area rank, city rank, state rank and India rank. We can also launch
multi-player games and display list of online users who can compete.
2. A timeline for users: - Timeline that has some articles on beauty/ health/ fitness/ Healthy Food etc.
It can be user content vetted by us or our own content. We will ask users to share as well.

User Retention: -
Problem: -The major key pain point that I reached after Primary research was that many users bought
the coupon and went to the partner but the partner declined the coupon. This was a major reason of
consumers not using the app again.
Solution: - We need a consumer centric approach with the aim to least amount of inconvenience to the
user. The same will be solved by building a feature like Booking a slot. As the user would get a
confirmed slot by the partner, the user won’t have to face any issue regarding partner rejecting the
coupon. If he/she does, customer care can be contacted. Flow chart is below: -
 User selects from an User confirmed ,
alternative slot Partner informed

Partner Rejects & Cancel and get Buy & Book another
Provides Alternative refund as deal for the same
Slots Aroundyou cash day

Cancel and get

refund in Bank
User Requests a /Wallet used
time slot from
available slots
Partner Accepts User gets
confirmation.

Aroundyou calls up If partner doesn't

Partner Neither
the partner 30 mins picks up, user
accepts nor rejects
prior to time slot advised to cancel

Figure 1: - Flowchart for Booking a slot

Metrics to measure: -
1. Number of users using the feature
2. Average time taken to accept/reject: - We need to bring this down
3. Partner wise accept/reject: - This would be displayed on the listing of partner and would be a
parameter in determining the partner rating along with user reviews.
4. Repurchase rate of coupons: - How many users are repurchasing the coupons and change in it when
the feature was not present.
5. Reviews on Play Store/App Store: - Are people still failing a problem of coupons being declined.
6. Upselling and cross selling rates: - What coupons were we selling earlier and what all new category
coupons are we selling now to the same customers. Have these rates increased.
Metric to measure negative impact: -
1. User visiting the confirmation page where the partner accepts/rejects.
2. Number of customers calling customer care to enquire why the status is pending.
3. Number of vendors off boarding as an additional step is added.