Guwahati, Jan. 11: Shop online but pick up items at your own convenience.

Brother-sister duo from Assam Ranjita and Ranbir Das, students at Texas A&M University - have developed an app, Wayside, which will show users shops available in their area, allow them to choose items they are looking for, buy it online and pick it up from the store at their convenience.

"As far as we know, there is no such app in the country. We are implementing a number of features in Wayside. It is a platform where any shop can have their presence made visible to the user. E-commerce giants throughout the country have delivery system where we depend on the delivery person to get our purchased item. But our app is a buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) model. It is used by retail chains like Walmart in the US but has not been implemented here," Ranjita told The Telegraph.

IT minister Keshab Mahanta launched the app at Digi-Dhan Mela here today.

"The app can be used in any part of the country. We already have shops registered in Bangalore and Ludhiana. But we wanted to launch it from Assam as this is our home state," Ranjita said.

Wayside, which doubles as a store-locator app, has been on Google Playstore for the past three months and the siblings are constantly trying to upgrade it.

The app aims to primarily leverage small businesses by providing them state-of-the-art e-commerce visibility on a par with giants in this field.

"Shops can enjoy increased sales because of confirmation of availability of products as well as users who would not go around searching for an item if they knew that it was available in a shop on their way," she said.

Wayside users reap the benefits of maximum flexibility of purchase without being beholden to an address or store delivery hours. They will also save on delivery charges and convenience fees.