Italians are often stereotyped as being incredibly passionate, but to be fair, €10 million would be enough to get anyone’s heart racing.
That is the amount that Italy-based ShopFully has garnered in its most recent round of funding, TechCrunch reported. Known as DoveConviene in Europe, ShopFully focuses on solving a simple pain point for most retailers around the world: driving in-store foot traffic. By using shoppers’ locations to aggregate all nearby deals into easy-to-read digital flyers, the app is modernizing a tried-and-true method of pull marketing. ShopFully CEO Stefano Portu told TechCrunch that, with a little digital assistance, retailers don’t need to overthink this issue.
“We solve a huge problem for retailers,” Portu said. “Circulars are their most important media — with €30 billion invested worldwide in over 25 countries to print and distribute them. It’s still the most effective way retailers have to drive people to physical stores. However, in today’s electronic world, obviously paper distribution is becoming increasingly ineffective. So, we provide retailers with a more efficient and measurable distribution platform to reach their customers and encourage them to shop.”
Portu isn’t the only one who sees value in investing in a digital replacement for the worn-out flyer. Vator News reported that several venture capital firms have lined up to throw their financial weight behind ShopFully, including Highland Capital Partners Europe, Principia SGR, 360 Capital Partners and Merifin. To date, ShopFully has garnered about €20 million.
What does ShopFully plan to do with its newfound wealth? According to Portu, the goal is expansion. By the end of 2016, Portu said that he wants ShopFully to break into a total of 10 countries.
If Portu and ShopFully can pull this off, they might have more localization work to do than they can handle.
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