Shopcade reveals retailing successes
By Retail Technology | Thursday October 17 2013
App to make content shoppable wins retail and publishing clients as well as new funding to fuel the development of its mobile presence
Company magazine recently debuted a new feature on its website in partnership with up-and-coming start up, Shopcade. The tie up will allow readers to directly shop the fashion featured on Company.co.uk via the Shopcade widget.
The editorial content of the women’s fashion magazine creates high demand for products. Historically, it’s been difficult for readers to purchase due to products being hard to find or out of stock. But, with the Shopcade widget installed, this is no longer the case. The tie up is designed to offer readers a seamless shopping experience, while Company can exploit commercial opportunities from the demand they create.
Publisher finds ideal partner
“Company loves to innovate and work with exciting new brands,” said Victoria White, Company editor. “Shopcade is the ideal partner for us – enabling our fashion-conscious readers to access the products they lust after quickly and easily.”
The external widget is designed for bloggers and editorial sites to bring products directly to their readers and generate extra revenue when purchases are made, while retailers can gain additional revenue from editorial coverage.
Available on web and mobile, Shopcade launched its social shopping app dedicated to making online shopping more connected in November 2011. Since then it counts young jewellery entrepreneur Amber Atherton and fashion chain Dorothy Perkins among its early retail adopters.
"Shopcade is a super fun way to curate your favourite products and make inspiration boards," stated Atherton. While an unnamed international e-commerce marketing assistant at Dorothy Perkins also said: "What sets Shopcade apart is their constant willingness to offer innovative new promotional tools and customer engagement methods for our business.”
Emerging business opportunity
Now hosting over 16,000 retailers and 150,000 brands, Shopcade also this week announced a new round of private funding to further grow its mobile presence with iOS7 and Android app launches next month.
The round includes new European investors, Pascal Cagni, known for his highly successful management of Apple's European business from 2000 to 2012, and Michel Combes, the current chief executive of telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent and ex-chief executive of Vodafone Europe. “By identifying the game-changing opportunities in mobile commerce, Shopcade is set to become the leading mobile shopping platform targeting fashionable young females audience,” stated Cagni.
Evan Adelman, Shopcade chief technology officer, added: “With big data at the core of our technology stack, we’ve always been able to include traditional e-commerce metrics and social factors in the platform. With these new data points – mobile and widgets – we’ve even begun noticing trends before they hit the giant retailers. Before marketing spends ramped up for Halloween funny pet costumes started to trend on Shopcade; today pet costumes are highlighted on Amazon.com.”
The technology developer was also recognised at the recent E-Commerce Expo Awards 2013, winning Best Affiliate Site at a ceremony in London.
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