Operator – Shopping Is Just A Text Away

In this world of technology, every minute thing is just a click away. Let it be ordering food, booking online tickets, booking for a cab, shoppingetcto be done instantly with just a click, all thanks to the Flipkart, Amazon, Swaggy, Uber, Ola etc. Everything is made available to us at our doorstep. These technologies emerged from our needs and shall still be emerging as there is never an end to the needs.

Imagine you have your friend’s birthday a couple of days ahead and you decide to buy her a gift/plan, a surprise that would make her feel special, you start googling get recommendations from probably a dozen of sites or even take advice from your friends, next thing would be to go through the sites that would review the product, compare the prices of the same product among different e-commerce sites and finally you would order the product. What if the whole work you did could be done quickly and with a lot of precision? This is no more a wish but has become a reality with launch of “operator”.

Operator-the shopping concierge

Operator is an iOS app that promises to fulfill a wide range of requests from the        customers all over the world. Customers can request their products through a message and the respective operators will process the requests and will subsequently provide the customer with a couple of recommendations and details of the product that the customer wishes to buy, giving the virtual shopping a human touch rather than being completely programmatic. For example, you wish to buy your son a DSLR camera and you have no idea about the features and which brand of lenses to buy, you could simply open the operator app and request to buy a DSLR camera for your son, then the best possible operators, who are trained experts would suggest you to buy according to your request. There is a huge network of operators over the network available round the clock to fulfill a wide range of customers’ requests.

Operator has been coined as “the shopping concierge” because concierge is an employee who assists the visitorsespecially in hotels, theatres etc. similarly the experts who are the operators assist the customers in shopping and are therefore Shopping concierges.

Operator-first look

Operator app is available on app store. The operator website “operator.com” defines it to be an app that connects the customers to the experts to help them find what they want and when they want.

The advertisement of “operator finds it for you” shows that it could help

• plan a dream date
• buy the perfect outfit
• pick a romantic spot
• buy your kid a favorite toy
• surprise your dear one with flowers

One could buy the flowers, electronic goods (mobile, laptops etc), fashionitems, tickets to concert or exhibition, furniture to suit one’s home and give a surprise to your dear ones on special occasion.

Operator-new way of shopping

Here is a simple example to introduce to the operator’s new way of shopping through a text. Kristine is looking for a table for her living room in their new apartment and uses the operator app which is similar to a messenger app, sends a message that” I am looking for a table for my living room” and she is assisted by an operator Linda who is best at her work.

She asks for the room style to which Kristine replies it to be marble floors and light fabrics. Linda suggests her by providing Kristine with the details of the table.

Personalized experience

I bought a pair of shoes on an e-commerce site and I was unaware of the fact that there are different representations of the size number (UK, US), the delivered shoes didn’t fit me and the pair of shoes was loose. I am among many who are afraid of shopping clothes and shoes online because of the fear of not fitting on the bill and sometimes, there is a lot of difference on what is there on the site (i.e. picture) and what is delivered to us.

The operator overcomes the aforementioneddrawbacks by providing a personalized experience to their customer. The above scenario can be avoided by sending a message such as “I would like to purchase a pair of Nike shoes of size 6” and an operator would assist you in making decisions by giving you recommendations on fashion ,fabric ,cost etc.that are particular to your taste making your shopping more worth , easier and convenient.

A step to advanced e-commerce

The great minds behind the “operator” startup are Garrett Camp (Uber chairman), Robin Chan (founder/CEO at operator and former general manager of Zynga).The idea of shopping over a messenger app is brainstormed by not limiting the idea to just sharing of pictures and chatting.

Operator has been compared to Magic which is an app that fulfills customer request through text but operator is more robust.

Chan says “On weekends, retail stores are packed, but are empty during weekdays when shoppers can’t visit in person. Employees end up sitting idle in the shop while online shoppers struggle to make purchase decisions”.

I honestly think operator could provide a lot of employment opportunities for a wide range of professionals.

The portal of operator’s job listing states that “operator is reshaping the e-commerce “.It’s the  intersection of the most widely used technologies that is mobile ,messaging and on –demand services which are on the rise at present time.

The Bottom Line

We hope operator app could reach out to the customers soon so that the customers get the experience of personalized and convenient shopping.

StartupWhale wishes Operator the very best for the tough road ahead. May Operator stand as the epitome of fame and success!