SaveUp

Bangladesh is currently one of the highly developing countries and has tremendous scope for many businesses to boom. However, Many new businesses fail to survive because of their inability to attract customers. Hence, sooner or later, most of these business end up getting shut down. One of the main reason for this is due to the lack of information that gets to the consumer. 

SaveUp will offer discounted offers from range of lifestyle services. It will ensure that all the necessary information gets to the consumer. The use of business name, business logo, details of the business and pictures will help showcase the true picture of the business. 

This way, users will know the accurate amount he/she needs to pay for any particular type of service. With clear and transparent information, SaveUp will bridge the gap and help to bring in more customers for the business. 

Dhaka is home to more than 20 million people according to recent surveys. According to WEALTH X report, Bangladesh has the highest number of rich growing rate of 17.3%. As the country’s spending ability increases, most of the city people chose to go out often to have a good time. However, due to lack of information, they often end up going/ doing the same thing again. As a result of this problem, many of the new businesses fail. 

Now, Imagine a simple mobile application which shows all sorts of different activities to do in the area, new restaurants, massage places as well as travel packages. The idea goes one step further when you can buy and plan whatever you want just through that app and that too at a discounted price. That's right! SaveUp will promote all of this lifestyle services on its platform at much cheaper price than original. This way, it will be easier to attract more customers and businesses get a boost by getting more customer than they would have expected. Getting exposure and increase of total sales revenue will benefit every business.

Although there are not accurate figures as such, but we could easily confirm that about more than 30% of the population falls within the target group (18 to 40 years old) in Dhaka city. These are mainly college students and young corporates. Since, I, myself fall in the same group, I tend to talk to them and understand the psychology. According to online sources, A major chunk of the population who buys online (from popular e-commerce website) fall into the same age group. This suggests people prefer easier methods than traditional ones.

The said age group are now smarter and more accustomed to technology. When one can use a simple mobile application to plan out the rest of the evening, for example going out to a restaurant with your loved ones or friends, treat yourself to a cozy massage after the long tiring week, or even plan the next getaway at a much cheaper price, people will be easily attracted. Moreover, the app will provide accurate information and draw a clear picture of what to expect from any of the services provided. All of this information and services in a single platform will surely be beneficial and make life much easier for everyone who uses SaveUp.

SaveUp is a dedicated lifestyle platform. Hence it will offer services in the following categories:

1. Food - All types of restaurants including buffets.

2. Beauty - Beauty parlours for men and women. 

3. Fashion - Cash Vouchers from renowned fashion houses 

4. Health - Basic health check up packages from popular clinics/ diagnostic centres.

5. Fitness - All fitness centres including martial art/ yoga/ zumba classes.

6. Massage & Spa - Massage and Spa places.

7. Travel - Holiday packages, Hotels & Resorts, Tickets to museums/ parks etc.

8. Services - Basic services like garages/ cleaning/ pest control etc.

As said earlier, SaveUp will be available in all platforms (Web/ iOS/ Android). Users can easily download or surf the web to browse for exclusive deals. Deals will be provided from the above categories. One can select their favourite deal, read through all the fine print (conditions) and proceed to check out. 

In order to redeem any bought deals, simply show the electronic voucher of bought deals and provide the code that will be generated upon redeeming. Done! 

Honestly, the whole idea of discounted deals through online is an old tried and tested method. Companies like Groupon and Fave are giant players in this similar sectors overseas. However, what makes it more challenging in the Bangladeshi market is its people's mentality and payment system. For the said reason, SaveUp brings a new approach. There are 3 methods available to suit almost any one.

1. Pay BDT '0' and get voucher directly listed under your profile. Show the voucher at merchant location to avail discount. - Users who do not have any cards/online transaction medium can also use SaveUp due to this feature.

2. Pay a small booking fee online and then pay the rest directly at the merchant in Cash. - Users who feel unsecured to pay a large sum online can easily use this option to use SaveUp and enjoy discount.

3. Pay full amount online.- This is the traditional system companies like Groupon and Fave uses abroad. However, due to the nature of Bangladeshi market, other 2 method are also implemented. 

With this 3 new methods and proven business model, SaveUp aims to grab the Bangladeshi market for discounted deals. 

Although it is said Bangladesh has one of the highest population in the region, the fraction of the population which buys products through internet is still very low. This means there is a tremendous scope. 

As the economy grows, more and more people reply on buying products from online. This shows that our population is slowly going through a transition where eventually over the next 5 years, the whole online e-commerce market will change. 

Since our app is a lifestyle based app where you can search for almost every activities needed in our daily life, SaveUp has a big advantage. Moreover, the best thing for anyone is to get a discount on their everyday services they use. Together, this could make a big difference in the years to come.

SaveUp android app is recently finished and uploaded on the Play Store at 6th September, 2019. The plan is to run a beta test with close limited number of customer and based on their feedback going for a final launch.

1. Currently Serving - 0

2. From our calculation and marketing plan, we expect about 50,000+ users in the first year.

3. In about 5 years, the sky is the limit. We expect anything between 500,000 to 10,00,000 users.

Goals for the next one year:

Emphasise on creating a user base. A user base is more important than starting to earn profit in the first year as a strong user base will give the company an upper strength in terms of negotiations. We also have to ensure that registered users actually use the discounts. Therefore, for the first year, our goal will be to increase app downloads and to increase sales even if no profit is generated.

Goals for the next 5 years:

Our goal will be to get people use SaveUp as an everyday commodity. It will be a household name where before making every decision, one will check on the SaveUp app to check for latest deals. Meanwhile, In the next 5 years, SaveUp will also look to expand its offered services like railway, bus tickets, plane tickets, general medical screening services etc.

For next one year:

For attracting new users, advertising is very important to educate that such app like SaveUp exists in the market. Moreover, we also need to provide extra discounts to tempt users to avail the offers. Money is the barrier here.

For next 5 years:

In order to make SaveUp a daily commodity, it has a offer a 360 degree solution. Which means basically any services you want, you can find it on SaveUp. For this we need to hire a  right person who is fully dedicated and in our team. Right person for the job can take the company to new heights. Hiring the right person at reasonable salary is a challenge.

If we get proper funding, SaveUp will use the resource wisely into hiring experienced personnel who knows how to deal and execute deals efficiently. SaveUp believes it already has a proper marketing team who is experienced, talented and capable to meeting the requirements. With enough money to spend in advertising, it will do an excellent to get more users use and download the application at much cheaper rate / user.

Full time staff: 15
Part time staff: 1

Management: 4

IT team: 3

Sales team: 3

Marketing team: 5

Content writer: 1

Our core management team comprises of 4 young individuals with background in Business, Engineering and IT. All of us studied abroad in respective disciplines and settled in Bangladesh with the intention to do something for our country. Since e-commerce is a very promising sector, we researched months about its prospects. We closely followed many local e-commerce companies to learn about the scope of e-commerce. After considering lot of sectors and the risks involved, we decided we were confident about the idea and wanted to do exactly this. 

In summary, we are young talented individuals with experience is multi discipline as a group, fully dedicated, believes in ourself and the idea. 

NO

SaveUp is available across all platforms; Web, Android & iOS Apps. 

The business model will be divided into 2 parts and will have 2 different goals:

1. Merchants will be able to register for free and get promoted through our various platforms including social media. They will provide discount on products they wish to list. We will add a small commission amount and then list on our platforms. Hence whenever a sale is made, commission is earned. 

However, there will be some products where we will charge no commission and users will be able to avail these offers directly without any online payment. The main idea here is to get in more users and to build a customer base/ more traffic in the app. 

2. When a handful of customer base is created, we will reach phase two of our business model. Here, we will charge a registration fee depending on the type of merchant. We will also be able to push merchants for higher discount rates. If we are successful in doing so, with the volume of sales and increase in commission, we will fast reach a profitable position.

This idea a preliminary thought about the way we are going to operate. Further improvements will be added time to time.

First of all, the current model is a new idea and thus we need to invest in order to educate and make user habituated to our app. Provide extra discounts, monthly offers, daily offers and more. But once we are successful in doing so, businesses will depend on SaveUp for their advertisement. People will depend on SaveUp for their lunch, dinner, travel plans and much more.

Currently, we have a commission rate of around 5-10% depending on products and price etc. Since Bangladesh has a high population and maximum of them has a smart phone, we can use it to our advantage. With volume in sales, we will be able to reach financial sustainability soon.

The goal is simple. To get funded and get accredited from organisation like Tiger IT Foundation. If my application is successful, it will open several doors simply because organisation like Tiger IT Foundation believes in the idea. This not only sends a strong message, but with the funding, we will be able to get more physical presence with proper advertising and raise a name for the company. 

Organisations which are already in the e-commerce field as well as service sectors like restaurant/ hotels/ gym/ medical services etc. We do not have any in mind, but joining hands with a well-known organisation in the market will definitely boost our acceptability in the market and our race towards success.