New app could revolutionize how people buy and share things

Yep, there’s an app for that! Today on Indy Style, Brian Phillips, Co-Creator of Viy, and Amy Burklow, who’s a Viy user, describe the app and how it could revolutionize how people buy and share things!About Viy:

• Viy can help you save money and space by allowing you to more easily share what you’d otherwise buy.

• Millennials spent $250 billion in 2016, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We want to redefine consumerism by giving people options of what to buy and what to Viy.

• Here’s how it works. Users download Viy from the App Store and enter items that they’re willing to share (think carpet cleaner, camping gear, tools, books, dorm refrigerator, maternity clothes and more). Items can be organized into inventories (or Divvies™) according to geography, lifestyle, common interests and stages of life. Then, using only their personal contacts, users invite their trusted friends, neighbors and co-workers to opt in. When they want to borrow an item, users send a request via the app, mutually agree on the length of the loan, and do the exchange. (See video at https://vimeo.com/144651277)

• Viy is also a more sustainable way to consume. Buying less and Viying more will not only reduce items stored in our homes, but reduce goods and packaging that go into landfills.

• After experimenting with an internal online sharing program and researching the growth of car sharing, bike sharing, Airbnb, the creators began to seriously work on developing the app. Two years later, Apple is offering it in the App Store.

• To demonstrate the savings, the app uses algorithms to track money that would have been spent on purchases and cubic feet that would have been required to store items. You see the cost and space savings accumulate for your personal shares, as well as cumulatively by all Viy users.

To learn more, visit www.ViyIt.com.