Snooper, a platform that allows brands and retailers to collect data by having consumers complete ‘missions’ related to their products in stores, has raised $1 million in a funding round led by Microequities Venture Capital.
Founded in 2016 by Romain Stas and Laurie Wespes, both who have experience in the fast-moving consumer goods space, the app was launched to give brands and retailers a cost-effective way to monitor the execution of their sales and marketing strategies in stores.
Speaking to Startup Daily last year, Stas said described a ‘mission’ for Snooper client Heineken, “[where] you visit a bar and help Heineken understand if the bartender is serving the beer in the Heineken way. Heineken believe that if the bartender serves a beer in a specific, Heineken-developed five-step way, then you’ll enjoy the experience more, so they want to make sure that bartenders are trained around that.”
Essentially a techy update of the mystery shopper, consumers, meanwhile, are paid to conduct these missions. The startup reported it has “thousands” of users on board across Australia, and is in particular looking to strengthen its base in regional areas.
With early adopters on the client side including Heineken, Unilever, and Coca-Cola on board, the funding will go towards accelerating growth in Australia, building the Snooper team, and developing new features in collaboration with the startup’s flagship clients.
Daniel Szekely of Microequities Venture Capital, who will join the Snooper board as part of the deal, said the early adoption of Snooper by global brands is “indicative of an industry in real need of a technology solution for a problem that can’t be solved with traditional processes”.
“Driven by the needs of its clients, the business has grown quickly to have a national presence and is now ready to dominate not only the Australian market but the global market as well,” he said.
Stas added, “We are grateful to have had the support of amazing brands in the early days and are happy to see that crowdsourcing creates a new collaboration model between brands and retailers driving sales uplift for both parties and leading to better customer experience.
“Brands that don’t evolve are left with sales reps that can’t cover all stores and historical data which means that by the time a promotion has ended, it’s too late to take action.”
According to Nielsen, 70 percent of shoppers make their purchasing decisions based on what they see in store; in turn, consumer product companies spend $1 trillion a year on in-store investments to capture their attention, with promotions or strategic positioning of a product in store able to give brands a 15 percent lift in sales.
Wespes said, “With intensifying [profit and loss] pressure driven by price wars, private labels, e-retailers, global competition and many other factors, the FMCG sector needs to turn marketing into a science and stop treating it like an art.
“To do this, brands and retailers need access to real time data, that’s consumer centric and cost-effective. Snooper uses technology to provide this solution in a way that was previously impossible.”
Image: Laurie Wespes and Romain Stas. Source: Supplied.
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