South African startup MySidekick has launched its free Android-based shopping app across the country, offering users special deals from retailers such as Clicks, Dis-Chem and Volpes.
Incubated at the Nedbank Stellenbosch University LaunchLab business incubator, MySidekick has developed an application that provides users with relevant shopping deals and in 2015 secured a ZAR4 million (US$280,000) staged investment from Stellenbosch-based technology funder and developer Alchemy-A.
“The user can personalise the app so that they only see specials of product categories they are interested in, and this can easily be changed or updated by the user. We then have proprietary algorithms that make sure there is a good variety of specials on display,” said MySidekick chief executive officer (CEO) Leonard Brewer.
“When a user arrives at a mall, they receive a notification reminding them that there are relevant specials for them, and they can then open the app from the notification to browse through them so they can decide which store to go to, to save some money.”
The aim of the app is to save the user time and money by showing them relevant retailer specials as they shop. On installation, the app will ask the user what they are interested in and then notify them of tailored specials when they arrive at a particular shopping destination.
“And it’s clever enough to know you’re not just passing by, it will only notify you once you have parked your car and are walking to the entrance,” said Brewer.
