How Aggregators Are Changing the Dynamics of Almost Every Business Aggregators can spot trends early on mainly due to the sheer volume of data they process

Today there's a start-up for everything that you can think of. While this sounds comforting, having every single app on our mobiles is not really convenient. We all use various apps for our different needs and it is the aggregators who solve the clutter and bring all of these services on a single platform. For aggregators, technology is the key; from integrating various services on their platform to offering an easy interface and quick solution to customer requests, technology is the facilitator. Aggregators have also mobilised the labourers in the market and opened new employment avenues for them.

Democratising the Process by Giving Equal Opportunity to All Service Partners

Timesaverz, an aggregator platform, offers the choice to pick up an available employment opportunity at one's own will. In a country with a huge unemployment ratio, companies such as Timesaverz are connecting many talented servicing professionals with the end users, helping them earn a steady flow of income at the same time. According to Debadutta Upadhyaya, Co-Founder and CEO, Timesaverz, this democratises the whole process by giving equal opportunity to all service partners in the service- locality to pick up services.

"Key is to have a verified pool of curated service partners in a particular locality. That solves the concern around security which is one of the primary reasons for opting to get chores done through aggregators who take the responsibility of getting the service partners verified on their platforms," he elaborated.

Standardisation Of the Price

Standardisation of the price also becomes imperative owing to the need to be transparent to the customer. Aggregators define it without catering to the whims and fancies of the service providers - one of the key problems that they are solving. It is increasingly evident that aggregators bring up the need for competitive pricing, delivery, and making businesses more performance driven.

"Aggregation is rapidly spreading to many different industries and assuming different forms. The wider scope of services that a company offers ensures bigger customer traction. Hence companies need to always think of expanding horizontally," shared Upadhyaya.

Shine.com which has just introduced Shine Learning, a professional courses and certifications marketplace for working professionals, aims to offer more courses on the same topic from a wider selection of course providers to choose from.

Zairus Master, CEO of Shine.com feels aggregation models have lower costs than similar standalone businesses which they can pass on as a cost benefit to the customers. "We are able to offer more promotional offers and better prices or more value at the same price than a single provider would," he shares.

Due to low fixed costs, aggregators tend to be more agile and can switch their offerings faster than a traditional business. It enables them to adapt to changing market demands faster by tying up with new partners or introducing new offerings in their mix.

No Bias in Promoting any Particular Product

Unlike a traditional business pushing its own products, an aggregator wants to figure out where the demand is so there is no bias in promoting any particular product as none of the products are its own. "At Shine Learning, we study which courses consumers are showing more interest in and try to acquire more such courses from our extensive partner network," puts in Master.

Trend Spotting

The sheer volume of data that an aggregator processes is huge compared to a standalone business, which makes it easier to spot trends early on. This also helps aggregators move faster and stay ahead of the curve.

"For us, at Shine Learning, this means being able to spot emerging skills and courses before they become popular in the mainstream. We are able to then proactively add more courses for emerging skills, which we think will become bigger in the coming months. This helps our learners because they know they can rely on us for an accurate picture of skills going to be in-demand and help them find a job eventually," concludes Master.

Aggregators Open Additional Customer Acquisition Channel

Sachin Jaiswal, CEO, Niki.ai says aggregators open yet another customer acquisition channel for the businesses offering that service. Not only the business marks its presence on additional customer acquisition channel, Jaiswal feels, it also gets to avoid huge costs involved in advertising and discounts.

"If you're a merchant providing bus booking or hotel booking service (Redbus in our case for buses, Cleartrip for hotels), you definitely get to earn additional revenue with transactions happening off your own platform, through the aggregator's platform. In such cases, both, the aggregator and the business, work independently for one common cause - getting new customers and in turn, more business. This creates a win-win situation," he illustrates.

Similarly, an aggregator with multiple services on its platform can also help businesses improve chances of conversions when a customer stumbles upon a new service while transacting for another. For smaller businesses, aggregators help establish initial connect and loyalty among customers.

Aggregators Help Create One-Stop Shops

"For an end user, aggregators help them by creating a one-stop shop. This also increases convenience by providing numerous options at one place. Niki has India's largest bus inventory and this is due to its partnership with Redbus as well as Ticketgoose. This kind of partnerships wouldn't have been possible in any other scenario, it wouldn't make sense, but aggregators can pull it off," shares Jaiswal.

In Niki's case, it's not just multiple partners fulfilling one service; it is about multiple partners fulfilling multiple services on Niki's minimal chat platform. The services that Niki offers include - mobile recharges, utility bill payments, cab booking, bus ticketing and hotel bookings, events and movie ticketing, nearby searches and deals, with flights bookings, insurance, and health services in the pipeline.