[App Fridays ] Voonik: personal shopping redefined

Fashion is a billion dollar industry around the world and in India. Though most people feel comfortable in their old jeans or their favourite top or t-shirt, we have to dress according to the occasion as well. But many people have no clue about personal styling or what is considered appropriate and fashionable in our society. This could be either because of lack of time or ignorance. Also people generally avoid going to personal stylists as they feel it is a luxury, that only the wealthy avail.Voonik.com addresses this pain point and provides users a personal stylist all from the comfort of their home.

About

Voonik is an Indian stylist-handpicked apparel store, which helps users choose the right clothes for different occasions. They have 3 stylists with vast amount of experience in the fashion industry.

Most of us either do not have the time or lack knowledge in the nuances of fashion. Voonik helps in such cases to pick the right set of clothes based on various parameters such as skin tone, body type, height, occasion etc. Voonik also has an app to provide the experience for users on the go. At present, this service is offered mainly for women only.

Voonik had recently raised 2.5 Crores in funding from Seedfund and other investors after winning Bloomberg India’s 'The Pitch 3.0'

Team Behind it

The Voonik app was developed by Nikhilesh and Navaneetha in a period of five months.

The team is based out of Bangalore and consists of a diverse group of individuals who have worked at companies such as Amazon, Zoho, HP Research Labs, IBM, Fresh Desk, and Aryaka and from institutions including Indian School of Business, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Institute of Technology, and Image Consulting Business Institute.

Sujayath Ali

Sujayath is the Co-Founder and CEO of Voonik. He has an MBA in Technology and Finance from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science Engineering from MepcoSchlenk Engineering College.

Sujayath was VP, head of Visa Checkout merchant program at Visa. Prior to that, he was associated with Amazon.com as their Senior Product Manager for more than 7 years.

Navaneetha Krishnan J 

Navaneetha is the CTO & Co-Founder at Voonik. Earlier, he was the Principal Developer at Freshdesk, Technical Architect at Aryaka Networks and Tech-Lead at Narus Networks

Nikhilesh

Nikhilesh is a developer at Voonik, he did his M.Tech in Computers from IIT Madras. He was a developer at Aryaka and IBM before joining Voonik.

Features

The app recommends the most suitable clothes and accessories to the user based on criteria such as skin tone, height, body shape and the styles they prefer which can be traditional, modern and trendy. The users have to go through a one-minute visual quiz and complete this procedure.

Based on the criteria the app hand-picks the most suitable clothes and accessories for any user. This is done via Tinder like user interface(UI) where the user can ‘Heart ‘the clothes they like or ‘X’ the ones that they do not prefer.

A user can also explore different categories and pick different clothes and accessories and access multiple stores from within the app.

Users can also create a“Love List” with the clothes and accessories matching their tastes and earn credit when someone buys from it. There is also a feature which lets users know when prices drop or items are back in stock.

Pros and Cons

The app offers a huge database and a variety of categories of clothing and accessories. It also automatically applies the best available coupon code on the items a user wishes to purchase. Voonik describes their service as a ‘personalization-on-steroids platform’ and this is apparent in the app and on the website with their attention to detail and recommendations. The app requires 3.4MB of storage space and Android 2.3 or higher to function.

We did notice a few minor glitches, which we felt if corrected would enhance the user experience(UX) manifold. The categories are not arranged alphabetically, so it becomes confusing and overwhelming for a user who is not sure what she wants to buy. We faced a few occasions where the clothes recommended were not matching the body type and also there are some discrepancies in their sizing guide.

YS Verdict

With over 10,000 downloads within one month and an average rating of 4.3/5 , the level of personalization and experience of the entire team in this field is apparent. Overlooking a few minor glitches, the app is user friendly and provides a unique and personal shopping experience.

You can download the app from the Google Play Store here and check out their website here for more details.

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