An app tailormade for shopaholics

Ranya Zaben and Enass Soussan are the co-founders of Akyasi.

Shoppers that want to continue roaming around their favourite malls, without having to worry about carrying all their purchases, will find that the answer to their predicament lies in a recently launched free-to-download application.

Co-founded by Ranya Zaben and Enass Soussan, Akyasi - meaning 'my bags' in Arabic - is a mobile app that reduces the burden on shopping lovers from carrying numerous and usually heavy shopping bags.

After downloading the Akyasi app, users can sign in with their mobile number and choose their desired location for collection or delivery - whether it is their home, hotel or office. Following each purchase, consumers then scan the QR code on their Akyasi bags in addition to the QR code on one of many drop-off location boxes located throughout shopping districts. The customer then pays through credit card on the application, or cash on delivery, with the price based on the consumer's selected drop-off address.

"The Akyasi application works by integrating end-users, retailers and delivery operations to facilitate a seamless and hassle-free shopping experience for its users," Ranya, founder and CEO, told Khaleej Times.

"For malls that already have concierge services, Akyasi provides integration services for them between their end-users and their logistics partners. Through Akyasi, the concierge service receives a notification from the application rather than customers having to identify themselves to the concierge service to ask for their help."

Delivery charges vary depending on where and when delivery is required, and the price ranges between Dh20 for delivery within the mall premises, and Dh50 for express delivery within three hours in the same city as the shopping mall, she explained.

Akyasi is a complete operations platform which allows the tracking and coordination of the travel of the user's bag at any moment from the shop to the users' preferred pick-up point or delivery address. This technology is capable of handling multiple shopping districts simultaneously in different countries and different time zones while also collecting data on user's shopping patterns to enable the upselling of relevant products online or offline, within any shopping district.

Encouraged by the response to their platform in the UAE, the company is planning to roll out the app in other markets in the region shortly.

- rohma@khaleejtimes.com

Rohma Sadaqat

rohma@khaleejtimes.com