Monday, October 30, 2017

App Idea: Uber for retail goods and skills?

[Disclaimer: Perhaps an app like this already exists. If so, please do let me know!]

Consider this use case scenario:

I am sitting at my desk, working. I am having a terrible headache, and realize that I need to buy medicine for it. 

Just then, my wife informs from the kitchen that we need to order some grocery items. 

My little kid is tugging away at my leg; She wants a drawing book and a set of colour pencils for her drawing class. 

(Image credit: Far Reach Inc.)

So… I open this app and enter my list: A strip of tablets, a bunch of grocery products, and a couple of stationery items

The app sends notifications to various shop-owners around my home. Pharmacists see the medicine list, grocery shop owners see the grocery items and stationery shop owners see the demand for drawing book and colour pencils. 

Each of them enters a 'bid' in their app. 

I see the various 'bids' on my app. Depending on the location of the shop, the brand of the product, and, perhaps my past experience with a particular shop, I select the vendors. 

For example: I need the medicines urgently, so I would select the nearest pharmacy. 

I need good quality grocery and it's not very urgent, so I would select a vendor that could be little far away but with whom I have had excellent experience in the past. 

Each of the vendors that I select gets a notification. They pack the required items and send it out for delivery. Optionally, I can also mark some items to be picked up by me. For example, for stationery items, I may select a shop that is located on the way to my kid's drawing class. 

The cost for the items delivered would be auto-debited from my account in the same app, and credited to the respective vendors' account. The app can also provide a "credit" or "EMI" option in the cases where I cannot make the payment right away.

The app would also provide a facility wherein users can give feedback about various shops. This would make the shop owners pay attention to the quality of goods and customer service. 

Furthermore, this need not be limited to goods. How about 'shopping' for skills that are available for hire nearby. For example: I need to build a website, so I can enter it in my app, and the web developers in the area would get notifications which they can bid for.

So basically... This is Uber, but for retail goods. 

What do you think?