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Two years ago, while walking on a beach in Hawaii, Shane Arora, a fourth-year computer science and business major at Northeastern University, came across a woman selling bracelets.
Out of curiosity, he asked her how they were created. In response, the woman said she goes to the beach every morning, picks up plastic debris that washes up on the beach, and uses that material to make her bracelets.
Her story inspired Arora to buy bracelets for himself and his entire family.
“And now when I wear that bracelet or when my mom wears that bracelet, we think about that woman, and we think about her story and what she does every morning to make these bracelets,” says Arora, Alia’s founder. “For us, that’s quite an impact, and the bracelet means a lot to me.”
However, the woman told Arora that she was unsuccessful in taking her business online. Her story is lost in an ecosystem of rich content.
That’s where Aaliya comes in, says Arora.
“We try to solve the problem of how small businesses compete online and build relationships,” says Arora.
The software company builds a loyalty program specifically for small business websites. The widget rewards users with in-store discounts for learning about the company in small, easy-to-take quizzes.
Most of the other gadgets that appear on retail websites are marketing, says Arora. But these are about having an emotional connection with the owner.
“We are disrupting the industry by allowing our customers to learn and be rewarded,” Arora said.
Last year, Statista reported that more than 60% of all online transactions went to the top 15 retailers, with Amazon pulling in the majority at 37.8%, followed by Walmart at 6.3% and Apple at 3.9%. As a result, big players are crowding out small businesses, says Arora.
“We want to give them the tools to compete effectively with these mega-retailers online,” said Corey Gill, Alia’s founder and fourth-year finance and economics student.
The company recently won the Hult Prize Challenge hosted by the Northeast Entrepreneurs Club. The pitch competition focuses on sustainable fashion, one of the company’s core customers.
In addition to the co-founders, Alia’s team includes four other employees, all Northeastern students met at the university.
“We’re basically a Northeast startup,” says Arora.
The company plans to launch the product in the next few weeks with a pilot program featuring other North East startups. Then, after that success is proven, they take these examples and sell them to companies outside the Northeast ecosystem.
With a plan to get 100 customers to use the program within a year, 25 customers have been featured in the marketplace on Alia’s website. In five years, the company aims to change the way people shop online – from large retail stores to small sustainable companies.
Its success, according to the co-founders, is entirely dependent on what the Northeast has to offer.
“The Northeast was amazing in its resources,” says Arora. We used every resource we could find, and we’ve been able to boot since then.
Beth Treffeson is a reporter for Northeast Global News. Email her at b.treffeisen@northeast.edu. Follow her on Twitter. @beth_treffeisen.
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