Lokata.ru - online catalog for purchases offline

Fast Lane Ventures launched its new project Lokata.ru : Russia's first online search service for products and services in the catalogs of retail chains. The principle of service is to find products and services of the widest profile with the help of online catalogs. Through the website Lokata.ru, an application for iPhone or Android, you can:

• Search and find products and services of any category from the catalogs of retail chains

• Find the stores / service points you need nearby

• Find out the addresses and hours of their work



The principle of operation of the service is very simple: retail chains, restaurants, etc. provide Lokate with information about their offers, and, of course, information about the location and operation of their outlets. Lokata sorts this data and allows you to find both by catalog and by geolocation or simply by map located on the site.

How it works

Neither the site nor the mobile applications do not require registration. Having installed the application from Google Play or the AppStore , you can immediately start working - see everything that is near you:

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Or set up filters and see all offers available for the product you are interested in:







The catalogs you see are the same booklets that you can find in your mailbox or in the store itself. It looks best on a large screen that is close to the physical size of the directory itself, but even a 4-inch smartphone, thanks to the zoom, allows you to consider all the offers in detail:







One of the features of Lokata catalogs is their relevance. If we are talking about a promotion, then along with information about the offer, the expiration date will be indicated:







After you browse the catalog, Lokata will offer you to look at similar offers from other companies:







The advantage of the web version over mobile is that, in addition to similar catalogs, it also offers to look at the addresses of the nearest stores for which these offers are relevant:







Those who wish to receive information about new offers in the category they are interested in can subscribe to an email newsletter on the site itself or set up alerts in the status bar in the mobile application.

History of creation

Judging by the list of the most popular catalogs, so far Lokata has been tasted mainly by women - which is, in principle, not surprising if you remember who most likes to look through the colorful booklets of stores offline :)







However, perhaps this is a temporary phenomenon - because the European counterparts have a male and a female audience roughly divided in half.



The service was developed by the German company Bonial International Group, the first in Europe to implement the concept of “looking online, buying offline” (online service kaufDA ) and launched in partnership with Fast Lane Ventures .



It combines a powerful search engine, geolocation platform and the ability to view brochures and catalogs online. Thanks to this combination, kaufDA users can find the nearest stores and find out their opening hours, as well as receive the latest information on special offers and new catalogs and brochures of their favorite and nearby stores. The service has become very popular in Germany, providing today information on 200,000 retail outlets throughout Germany and having 32 million unique users per month. In 2011, the management of kaufDA created the company Bonial International Group to implement similar projects outside of Germany. The first such project of the company was the French service Bonial launched at the end of 2011. We have chosen Fast Lane Ventures as the launch partner for the Russian version.



At the moment, the service database contains 260 catalogs from 105 retailers. According to Digit.ru , the service does not adapt the catalogs received from companies - as a rule, these are electronic versions of advertising leaflets that can be found in the retailers' outlets themselves. As conceived by the creators of Lokata, retailers are interested in placing the most interesting offers in catalogs, and with time, if the service model is successful, they may begin to create catalogs specifically for him.



While the placement of directories in the system is free. Lokata conducts a test period, after which it will be assessed the effectiveness of the service. As reported on the official Fast Lane Facebook page, this will be done by both the retailers themselves, using traditional monitoring methods (customer surveys, coupon sales, etc.) and Lokata developers, tracking the most interesting offers to users. After the trial period expires, Lokata will begin to negotiate with retailers about the paid placement of catalogs, promotions and discount coupons, Digit.ru writes.

Analogs and Prospects

There are no direct service competitors in Russia yet. Foursquare and AlterGeo provide information on retail outlets near the user - but do not contain product catalogs and new offers. In addition, this activity is not a priority for them in principle, so Lokata.ru receives all the advantages of a niche concentrated project.



Yandex.Market is a much more developed directory, but is limited within its specificity only by promotional products, while in Lokat there are grocery stores, food and services.



The weak points of Lokaty include the lack of adaptation of the main content - directories - to the needs of the web and mobile users and the limitations of the offer itself.



However, both of these shortcomings are planned to be eliminated over time - the number of retailers in the system is constantly growing and, if the project shows its effectiveness, the Lokata management expects to improve the quality of the materials provided. The strength of Lokaty is the catalog format itself, which is claimed by the service audience.



Go to the site, download the application and try it now. And you can also recommend Lokatu to your girlfriend, mother, or work colleagues: download the app for their smartphone - they will like it!