INDONESIAN augmented reality (AR) company Slingshot Group (formerly known as AR Group) introduces a virtual store network called Mindstores targeting local women and housewives.
Launched in 2016, Mindstores is the world’s first AR/VR network store platform that allows brand partners to offer a virtual franchise license of the stores to women who want to open the virtual business at a reasonable price.
“If one minimart franchise usually costs you up to US$70,000 per store, the virtual store will only cost US$100 and that will be the money the store owner can use to buy stuff for their store,
“Once the US$100 credit is finished, the store owner needs to top up and continue their business as usual,” Slighshot Group chairman and chief executive officer Daniel Surya (pic, above) explains.
Brands and retailers can partner with Mindstores to open up their inventory to be sold in the virtual stores. Anyone can then register as a virtual storeowner. Once approved, they will be able to sell anything from that store virtually.
Storeowners however need to buy in bulk, acting as an individual distribution channel, where the retail partners handle the logistics and product delivery.
It has been less than six months, and Mindstores currently has 8,000 virtual stores owned by 8,000 women in the country, the majority of whom are in cities around Java. They aim to have 150,000 stores within the next two months.
Daniel says that the possible number of virtual stores that can be opened with the Mindstores technology can hit four million in the next two years.
Mindstores has more than 5,000 products with a 2.3x basket size growth compared to physical stores.
Mindstores will have two other local retailers joining as partners, namely insurance company PT Astra Aviva Life as well as food retailer PT Primafood International.
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