A new app by Toronto-based technology company Wishabi aims to help shoppers save time and money as they browse through digital flyers.
The Flipp app, which launches Nov. 5, helps consumers scroll through a large sellection of digital flyers to seek out items on sale.
Beyond browsing the digital versions of retailers’ flyers (with the ability to sort items by discount size or “best deals”), the free app allows users to search for specific items and personalize their flyers from a list of more than 90 Canadian and 150 U.S. retailers, from Target to Hudson’s Bay Company.
The interface also allows users to tap items they want to purchase that are then automatically clipped to their personal shopping list. Their list can be uploaded to another mobile device to keep it handy when shopping.
At a launch event for the app last week in Toronto, Wishabi CEO Wehuns Tan shared results from a recent Ipsos Reid study on how Canadians use both print and digital flyers. Research commissioned by Wishabi and completed in June shows that 58% of consumers have read digital flyers in the past 90 days, and 36% seek out and read them weekly in Canada.
Retailers whose flyers appear in the app have an option of getting a premium listing, Wishabi director of marketing Kate Annis told Marketing. Those listings are involve a pay for performance model. “It’s not based on impressions,” said Annis. A user has to stay on the flyer for six seconds or more or make a strong action on a retailer’s flyer, such as moving from page to page or clipping an item from the flyer to their shopping list. “At that point we would charge a fee back to our retailers,” she said.
When asked whether the app will be implementing an e-commerce function so that users can purchase goods directly through the app, Annis said it “remains to be seen.”
For now, Annis said the company is looking for consumer feedback to “drive [the app’s] product roadmap.” For example, users will be able to request their suggestions for additional stories to add to the platform. Her team will also be forming a mommy blogger panel to understand what that audience wants in an app.
The next step in the app’s evolution is to include more robust details on the items featured in the flyers, such as consumer reviews, said Annis.
To gain a better understanding of the app’s target and how to get them to download the app, Annis said Wishabi analyzed people that are already on its existing platform of digital flyers, which was built three years ago and allows retailers to enhance their circular experience for digital and mobile consumers.
To re-target these people, Wishabi is using things like mobile marketing and rich video ads. It is getting out the word about Flipp via Twitter and Facebook, as well as running a contest on its website. There will also be a heavy SEM campaign as well, said Annis.
She added that she’d like to put 20% of the marketing budget for the app aside for risk taking. For example, her team may do something unconventional for marketing an app such as a cheeky direct mail campaign. “Using print, it almost has to be a little wink of the eye and be funny about it.”
She wasn’t able to disclose the agencies Wishabi is working with, but said there is also an internal creative team working on the marketing.
In September, Wishabi announced a $15-million Series B financing round with Insight Venture Partners.
