Bring together local commercial offers and requests, provide low-income people with products and services at advantageous prices, make the smartphone a practical tool for everyday life : at the intersection of these objectives, Étienne Ablancourt and his team have imagined an e-commerce solution which has been the subject of a first experiment since May in Saint-André.
It’s like an “almanac 2.0 good deals” that Étienne Ablancourt invites. Example with the experiment underway in Saint-André. The Saint-André merchants' association is the first to try the experience of bringing together customers and merchants via the Lalmanaq smartphone application, which brings together exclusive advantageous offers (promotional prices, discount vouchers, etc.) offered by local merchants in a limited time, so grab it as quickly as possible. Tradespeople, artisans, service companies chose the product(s) they wanted to offer as a good deal or good deal. Once these offers have been integrated into Lalmanaq, the customer can make the purchase without waiting from their smartphone. He then collects the product in store or takes advantage of the service purchased by presenting the QR Code of the purchase. “It’s like when you buy a movie ticket on your smartphone. You then validate your purchase at the entrance to the cinema.”, explains Étienne Ablancourt, inventor of the concept, which relies on a team of four developers (“two girls, two boys »). The application should experience some developments (including the introduction of product photos), but it has been tested and is perfectly fine. Information is easy to access, claire, complete, for both the customer and the merchant. Merchants who are not comfortable with IT can benefit from the support of a community manager to distribute their offers. These complement each other and do not compete with each other.. To reconcile local offers and demands, the project implements a common deployment strategy per municipality, in partnership with communities and trade associations. After Saint-André, Lalmanaq will be tested at La Possession, then in other municipalities.
Make daily life easier and better
Étienne Ablancourt defines his product as “distance selling through a personalized catalogue”. Everything is done to facilitate the purchase. For customer registration, Lalmanaq only collects the email address as personal data. The platform, also available on the web, is remunerated solely by the price of access to its service. She does not take any percentage of sales. If Lalmanaq is not reserved for a particular audience, Étienne Ablancourt would like to improve as a priority, by this means, the daily life of the most precarious, students, retired, job seekers, etc., a clientele for whom every euro spent counts and who largely escape local shops. Lalmanaq having planned to cover nine categories (shops, hotels and restaurants, bars, sports, culture, fashion and beauty, hobbies, professional services, personal services), all aspects of everyday life will be able to benefit from advantageous offers.
Commercial fairness as a principle
“I had this project after my studies in mainland France and commercial experience within the Le Parisien press group. I love technology and I noticed the digital divide in the practical use of the smartphone between the mainland and Reunion Island.. The experience of commercial negotiation gave me the keys to this solution which allows the most vulnerable to benefit from advantageous offers.. The application is freely downloadable, and other developments are possible, but I first aim for social equity in this rapprochement between customers and local merchants. I would like to raise awareness among merchants of the needs of the most financially vulnerable people”, declares Étienne Ablancourt. Among future developments, the platform also provides, eventually, to complete the current merchant interface with a customer interface, who will then be able to share their needs and expectations.
