My grandmother can’t go for kapda shopping (which is one of the loves of her life) anymore and so she has discovered websites like Fabriclore, where she can browse fabric collections at leisure.

Biggest issue is the fact that she can’t browse herself.

So I have been recruited.

Every week, before work, we sit together and browse fabrics and she asks me if it will look good on her. Then, because she doesn’t have a card, I end up paying for the fabrics.

I have been scammed off a lot of money over fabrics these past 6 months .

She has also discovered FabIndia dupattas.

‘So nice? With border? And I don’t even have to get them dyed! Prints too!’

So A Lot of dupattas have been purchased (Why? Don’t ask why! Not the point!)

And then she mixes and matches them online.

Couple of small observations:

Fintech is cool but it hasn’t equipped someone like her- non English, paying customers who are banked but cannot engage with banking services without a third party helping them. OTPs are good and all, but she gets frustrated very quickly.

Video shopping is THE future of shopping, especially for older folks (who really haven’t been tapped as a market). India is ‘traditionally’ known as a young market, but we’re slowing down. The next decade will see a distinct slowdown and shift https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-india-is-making-progress-in-slowing-its-population-growth

Our NBU might just have a bigger age variation than we’re banking on.

So much of cool tech involving older folks is about monitoring, limiting, or matronizing them. A distinct lack of equipping involved in the conversation. Video shopping (or shoptainment) is the bridge.

She would love to shop herself but she struggles to put details like addresses, numbers down. She has a facebook account she loves and uses in hindi and punjabi, but she falters at traditional checkout systems. A cross-language and voice first system would be a game changer.

She LOVES sharing what she’s bought, either immediately or when it gets delivered. She’ll me me or my sister take photos to send to her daughters, her kitty party groups, etc. There’s immense value in a social shopping for an older segment that looks to social cues while shopping

China as a small system of concierging for online sales and drops (esp sneakers) in which you can pay someone to actually manage processes. Wonder if there’s a market for something like that here. Instead of badly programmed chat bots, a video first virtual concierge experience.

Anyway I have been scammed out of a decent chunk of money and it’s not even noon yet. Old people really are efficient af in making me broke .