Alphatise the Australian based startup may be on course to revolutionising the way we shop. I dare you to find any business today that turns a profit, that doesn’t have a Facebook page. Now, it’s very likely, that at some point, the said company has paid Facebook for advertising. This advertising results in the business’ Facebook page receiving likes. The big question is, do these likes translate into sales? The answer is a big no. I can guarantee you that there are millions of users out there that like business pages but will never even consider spending a penny at the said business.
Alphatise seems to have come up with a solution to this problem. Instead of advertising and only getting a deadweight loss (no new customers and yet money is being wasted on advertising) now there is a new way. Alphatise seems to be gaining traction with successfully locking in investment (in the millions of dollars) and plans to expand into both Asia and the United States in the future.
The app attempts to send a pre qualified customer directly into a relevant business. The business can see both demand and the price point that the customer seems to feel is reasonable. Should the business agree to the terms, they will have a list of customers ready to come in and buy. So rather than being bombarded with advertisements for things you neither want nor need, Alphatise puts the power into the consumers hands and forces businesses to directly target their consumers wants and needs. This platform offers an almost certain transaction once a fair price point is reached.
So let’s say you want to but a new pair of Oakley sunglasses and feel that 80$ is a fair maximum price to pay. You fire up the Alphatise app, search for “Oakley sunglasses”, find the ones you want and make a “wish” on how much you are willing to fork out. You can also view the stats section that will show you the current average wish value and the current average offer value for the given product. This will give you an idea of what price the set. If the average price is 200$ setting a wish price of 20$ is a waste of time. Once the wish has been made, the retailer/business can choose to send you an offer for the amount you requested and then you simply click “accept” or “decline”.
Will this new ambitious startup replace giants like amazon? It’s unlikely, at least in the near future. However Alphatise is a very good idea that is working well in Australia with more and more consumers and businesses are joining in everyday. You should definitely keep an eye on this startup and give it a try if you are reading from Australia.
