ChikakuWorld is a one – stop – shop for all the local deals in your “Chikaku” (neighbourhood in Japanese). The aim is to create a portal where buyers can get access to the best possible deals in the vicinity at their fingertips.
The first phase of Chikakuworld was to create a merchant portal to encourage sign ups from local vendors across 7 industry sectors.
To fit with the theme of hyperlocal shopping for consumers, we wanted to have the same level of hyperpersonalization for the merchants. Since the goal was to acquire merchants via explaining the features of the platform, we set up a simple form at the beginning of the website. The form gets the user’s name, their shop’s name and industry sector.
At the backend we created 7 possible site versions showing specific examples matching the user’s industry and his shop. Content written across the site was also customized to sound like the site is having a one-on-one conversation with the user.
For example, if the user selects the electronic industry, the images would show various electronics. The content mentions about how he can sell electronics from his shop through our app.
At the end the user can either sign up on the site, download the app or call Chikakuworld for a live demo of the app. The website was made responsive across all devices so users or staff giving the live demos can use it to explain the features with ease.
Around 500 merchants signed up within the first three months.
