allMemoirs offers a product recommendation engine to online shoppers, targeting Indian expats in developed markets

Bangalore-based Olmec Technologies Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates allMemoirs, a products classification and discovery engine for online shoppers, has had more than 20,000 downloads for its mobile version since going live in October last year, according to a top executive of the firm. allMemoirs, which also enables consumers to discover gift items collated from various e-commerce sites, said its web platform sees close to 50,000 visits on a monthly basis.

allMemoirs was started in January 2013 by IIT Delhi alumni Mrigank Shekhar and Kush Srivastava. Shekhar had earlier worked at companies like RSA, Qwest and Tavant, while Srivastava worked at mChek and Qwest, prior to starting the venture.

"On the birthday of one of the co-founders, we were discussing how we can find gift items online at ease and at one place. As the discussion went on, we realised that finding a perfect product is a huge pain. This led to the launch of allMemoirs, which can offer a fully personalised shopping experience for the end consumer," said Shekhar.

In a nutshell, allMemoirs is aimed at making online shopping and finding gifting products hassle free. It handpicks products from multiple e-commerce sites and these items are classified into collections and tags according to a consumer's likes and tastes. The gift items are also categorised based on relation, occasion, mood, interests, age and price range. "This makes product discovery simple. Users can also save products into three buckets based on what they like, what they wish and what they want to gift," Shekhar added.

According to the company, the mobile version of the product (iOS and Android combined) is currently seeing around 200 downloads per day. "Problems are aplenty when it comes to online shopping even as the e-commerce space is witnessing a boom. We feel that our product classification and personalised approach will make choosing of products easier for the end consumer and thereby making shopping faster and simpler," said Shekhar.

Although allMemoirs is targeting the Indian audience with its product discovery engine, the company believes that its 'gift ideas' product has a global value proposition, given the large number of Indian expats in developed markets such as the US. Shekhar mentions that they (Indian expats) can use allMemoirs for sending gifts to their kith and kin in India and elsewhere.

Talking about the business model, he said, "Mainly, we bank on an affiliated revenue model. The end consumer can discover products/gift ideas offered by various sites/merchants from our portal/application. Also, we serve as a marketing platform for merchants who can display their new products/promotions on our site."

According to Shekhar, social commerce and product discovery should be a $250 million market in India by 2015. The company currently has four part-time employees, and is planning to hire more people starting this month. As for competition in this space, Shekhar said, "There are a few companies such as Sweetcouch (in discovery), Giveter (in gift Ideas) and Voonik (in style). However, all these companies are focused on one niche segment while we are building a classification platform (server and mobile app) which can cover all niche areas."

Going forward, the company will be focusing more on the mobile app segment. A self-funded startup, the company is now looking to raise $1-2 million to upgrade technology, rope in more merchants and for marketing activities.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)