In terms of funding, their seeding was done in 2015, with a $3 Million. Today, it is in round D of funding with the latest money rolling in from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC).  Their expansion is rapidly being carried out to all major cities in India. They are already well established in 12 cities of India. The revenue per different reports is around $3 million. The growth has been 7x faster in one year and Anshoo Sharma expects companies Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) to reach $5 Billion. The business is not doing just well in terms of actual finances. Its digital presence gives it the real edge from its competitors.

Strong digital footprint

MagicPin’s significant digital foothold when it comes to application, website and social media gives a cogent argument for its upper hand on the competitors. In 2020, this is one thing that any kind of concept cannot fall short in. Not a single business idea can make its mark without the power of the digital world in respect to marketing, networking, logistics. MagicPin has taken care of all three with optima. Let’s start with the application. MagicPin app on the Google Play store has more than 5 million downloads. Such a huge number does not come without feedback, there are 75 thousand and more reviews of the application. The application has an average rating of 4 stars. The application, from the interface’s perspective, looks just like a social media platform. It is highly interactive, users can connect, share and like each other’s posts. The whole MagicPin unit is amalgamated in this user-friendly approach.

If this wasn’t enough, they have now gone a step ahead with the introduction of augmented reality in the application. MagicPin app calls its virtual sponsored objects as quests. ‘Quests’ are hidden Pizzas, Burgers, or items that a user can search in his or her surroundings using the phone camera. Once you find a quest successfully, you can simply redeem it from inside the store.

The competition that MagicPin faces cannot be discounted at all. There are many applications-based platforms that are trying to exploit offline discovery models. However, many factors play in the hands of MagicPin. Heavy network of retailers. A loyal user base that is more than 5 million in number. Media coverage of MagicPin’s activities. Their business model has kicked in efficiently. However, after some good rounds in recent years, MagicPin’s competition has swelled, there is Nearbuy, Gifts on Air and MyDala.

The nearest competitor in terms of offline discovery would be Nearbuy. Rest are following the coupon and voucher gifting route. Gifts on air has a tremendous plan that is working well against MagicPin and other competitors. They are exacting the full amount back to the consumer with a hundred percent gift voucher. Users are already starting to like the ‘no condition’ format of Gifts on Air. Such heavy discounting from local providers can bring some tough fights to MagicPin. In niche categories, like dining out, the company Dine-Out is doing better than MagicPin in terms of their partnerships and offerings.

Idea meant to succeed

The MagicPin’s success is not really magical in terms of its trajectory, Anshoo and Brij’s eye on the market did the Eagle’s work. This is what an entrepreneur needs to do. Search for something that is untapped. That is out in the open but still is not being executed well. Thousands of retailers were earlier being contacted by likes of Walmart and wholesale providers too. Some other platforms like MagicPin were also trying to bring the retailers onboard. All these efforts did not fruit in onboarding on a bigger scale. MagicPin tried to bring in technology and mix the ongoing fashion of social connectivity in the idea. They added a fun factor to discovery.

Next, the chain referral system is unique. In this, the MagicPin platform ensures that users on their discovery of a good local service provider do share about the service on the platform. It gives them the opportunity to be mouth publicised. Which for small retailers, merchants are unlikely. A good post will eventually get likes from other users and there comes a general sense of gratification with it. MagicPin made sure they are always more than a retail offline discovery application. They rather went with the idea of 360 utilization of a full-fledged app. This way, either from user data or from their backend data, the app would also show events, concerts, fests, interesting people within the locality. This proved to be a game changer in keeping MagicPin’s services in competitive mode with its direct rivals. More so, when its competitors are aiming for one or two services from the same MagicPin ala-carte of offerings.

Major success of MagicPin was in empowering small retailers or the partners with data that could solve their issues. Issues could be finding specific kinds of customers to target, feedback of quality or most importantly, excess inventory. When the retailers go off the peak hours, there is excess of stored items left with them. MagicPin with its command over the advertising and rewarding space can direct customers in that specific time. So, the retailers can easily clear inventory even when a normal market condition won’t facilitate it.

Lastly, when the vision of the nation is shifting more towards an inclusive India. A self-reliant nation’s idea could only be dreamt with its small retailers being a part of its growth. They need customers to recognise their services and not to only depend on the online market. So, a trillion-dollar market, that the Indian retail market will soon be, a concept like hyperlocal discovery of MagicPin is bound to succeed if executed well. However, such ideas need great leadership at the right time. MagicPin has always had it.

Anshoo Sharma and Brij Bhushan are the founders of MagicPin. Both are IIM graduates. Anshoo is an experienced professional in the field of business with his major responsibilities being consultancy and investment. He was a senior member of the Lightspeed’s (investment firm) India team. Brij is a long-time entrepreneur now from his days with Nexus, a venture capital firm, where he was the vice president. He has closely worked with several start-ups for a long time now.

MagicPin’s success is a throttling one. It shuttled from a simple hyperlocal discovery app to an application with lakhs of downloads and more than one lakh merchants on board. Their pace of growth is combined with smart decisions to improve app interface, to change the usage of their data to let merchants target even finer sample space for consumers. The way ahead for MagicPin is as per their founders, in connecting the retailers with the online world. That makes MagicPin the house of all retailers but this time with online discovery as well. Something like Amazon, though less sophisticated.

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