Baggout Versus Voonik Shopping App

Earlier, festive time meant hectic trips to markets, jostling with crowd and tolerating tired and impatient shopkeepers who were too busy to show you the variety you desired. But now, online shopping at various ecommerce websites has made shopping so easy and comfortable. Even if we have to buy just one dress, we have the freedom to browse through hundreds of them without fear of irritating or tiring anyone (except our eyes, maybe!)

Whether it is fashion, electronics, home furnishings, we can all get them online. And as the popularity of smartphones increases, all these retailers are in a race to make their smartphone applications win. In fact, many of them offer an extra discount on applications.

Today, I decided to compare two such applications. Both are dedicated to fashion. The unique thing about them is that they display clothes and accessories recommendations based upon your preferences and body type and source their products from various other retailers. The advantage is that you can be sure that the dress you are buying is suitable for your body shape and instead of having to browse through various other retailer websites or apps, you can look at products from them at one single place.

So let's begin:

BAGGOUT

One of these services is baggout.com. Let's check out what their mobile app has to offer.

When you download and install the app, it asks you to Select your dressing preferences. The options are cultural desi, modern glitzy, simple sporty casual. Next, it asks you to select your Body shape. Here the options are apple, pear, hourglass etc. Finally, select the style you best relate too from chic classic, urban trendy, dated retro. Once these selections are made, the app generates personalized style recommendation in the form of cards.

When the recommendation cards show up, swiping them left means you dislike the product, swiping them right means you like them. There are also buttons at the bottom to indicate your preferences. Telling your likes and dislikes in this way would further enhance the recommendations that the app makes. If you like a particular product while browsing through the app or website, you can Like it and it will be stored and visible in the Likes tab of your Profile page.

Anyway, let's get back to the Home Screen of this app. The home screen shows cards with Bollywood inspired looks. Selecting any of these looks would bring up related dresses and accessories. On top right side of the Home Screen is a diamond shaped button that opens up the recommendation list. On top left is a button that opens up the menu with links to Home, Explore and My Profile. There are also links to share and rate the app and check out the About Baggout page. There's no customer support or Contact Us link though which is a grave lack.

If you'd like to search for a particular product, there's a Search button for that. Clicking the search button opens up the search bar. Below this search bar are more cards showing deals by discount like flat 50%, upto 70%

One thing that I minded was that there's no way to set filters as per size, sleeves, material etc from the Home Screen or the Category screen. However, filters appear when you click on any deal card and the page loads up to the items by any particular retailer like Jabong, Snapdeal

One attractive feature of Baggout is that it gives cashback. For example when I clicked the card that said upto 70% off, the page that opened up had products by Jabong and I got the intimation that I'll get 6% cashback on any purchase made from among the products shown, in addition to the discount indicated.

If you like a product and would like to show it to your friend or sibling, baggout app makes it rather hard because there's no sharing options on the product pages.

VOONIK

Voonik is another app that serves recommendations based on user's preferences and body type and sources products from various different retailers like Jabong, Snapdeal etc. While I tried the Baggout app very recently, I've been using the Voonik app since past several months and have always enjoyed the experience.

When you download and install the app, it asks you similar questions as Baggout. Once your body type and style preferences are set in it, it too serves suitable recommendations in form of cards. Here too you can swipe left to dislike, swipe right to like and tap the image for details. When you start the app for the first time, the directions for these actions are shown clearly. The items user likes are stored in the Love List which can be accessed by tapping on the Home icon on the top right side of any screen in the app.

From the Home Screen you can go straight to the category of your choice. Just press the Categories button on the top left and the list appears with categories like Ethnic wear, western wear, beauty, footwear. Several of these options have sub-categories which can be opened up by tapping at the main category. The bottom of this list contains links for review of shipping policy, privacy policy and Contact Us. These would make it easier for the user to check out the policies and to contact Support in case of any problem with the product delivered or payment made. Exclusive Offers link is also a part of this list and is prominently displayed.

Every screen in the Voonik app displays the Category button on the top left and the Home, Search and Shopping Cart buttons on the top right.

Tapping on the Home button opens up the menu with useful links like My Love List (displaying the Liked items), My Style Preferences (where you can edit your style preferences any time), My Notifications (for example notification of your Liked item being back in stock or at a discount), My Orders (order history), My Credits/Coupons, Customer Support etc.

In addition, every category page also displays Filter and Sort buttons at the bottom so users can easily fine-tune the items displayed and save the browsing time.

Tapping at the Search button just opens up the Search bar with no alluring cards displayed like the Baggout app. Just search what you want to search without getting distracted.

Another good thing about Voonik app is that it allows users to easily share items through Whatsapp. When you open a particular product page, it has three options at the bottom. The WhatsApp icon, the Heart icon and the Buy icon. Tapping on the WhatsApp icon sends the image of the product, along with product page link, to the chosen recipient on WhatsApp. Tapping on the Heart icon (also visible with the products while browsing through categories) adds it to the Love List. And tapping at the Buy button of course starts the checkout process.

Both these apps make it easy to browse through the products, offers and deals from different online retailers at one single place. Not just clothes, they also sell bags and other fashion accessories. But when I do a Baggout versus Voonik comparison, I find the user interface of the Voonik app much more convenient. The easy placement of Filter and Sort options, the ability to share the product images and links via WhatsApp and the presence of the links to Customer Support and policy pages wins it more brownie points. As of now, the Voonik app pleases me better. But then, the apps keep on changing and getting updated. Who knows, the next update of Voonik or Baggout app might topple the scales! Besides, Baggout does have the added advantage of offering cashbacks.

Anyway, if you'd like to check out these services and apps, here are the important links:

Voonik Website / Voonik Android App

Finally, before I sign out, if you know of any similar or better shopping app, do let me know!