Snooper, the crowdsourcing platform disrupting how brands and retailers collect data, announced today a $1 million AUD investment led by Microequities Venture Capital Fund to further accelerate growth in Australia.
Using the Snooper platform brands and retailers can now instantly connect with their shoppers around the country by uploading paid ‘missions’ to collect in-store data. These shoppers share their findings and experiences in real time via the Snooper App.
Consumer product companies spend around $1 trillion each year on in-store investments with 70% of shoppers making their purchasing decisions based on what they see in store. These brands can unlock a 15% sales uplift with visible and attractive promotions or strategic position- ing of products in store (Source: Nielsen).
Two thirds of these investments have a negative return on investment (ROI) due to the disconnect between the sales and marketing strategy and the execution in store. Without access to real time data in various locations simultaneously, brands and retailers cannot take corrective actions to address poorly executed promotions, inventory shortfalls or inaccurate product placement.
According to the company, Snooper offers a cost effective way for brands and retailers to monitor the execution of their sales and marketing strategies in store, in real time, whilst also creating a new gig economy platform for consumers eager to make some extra cash from their smartphone.
Snooper’s community of thousands of shoppers becomes an on demand, country wide, exten- sion of a field team, allowing brands to adopt a more flexible and efficient way to manage a traditionally costly field force.
Following the investment Daniel Szekely from Microequities will join the Snooper board and on the investment he said, “Snoopers’ early adoption by major 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.”
Snooper launched late 2016 by Romain Stas whose background is in Consumer Products marketing at L’Oréal, and Laurie Wespes, former team leader at Bain & Company and expert in FMCG growth strategy.
“With intensifying P&L pressure driven by price wars, private labels, e-retailers, global competi- tion 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” said Wespes.
Stas credits their strong growth to the early adopters in Snoopers’ client portfolio including brands like Heineken, Unilever and Coca-Cola.
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.”
Andrew Campbell, former Managing Director of Heineken Lion Australia and General Manager at Drinkworks said, “We had some traditional ways of measuring the execution of our strategy on the point of sales. Along came Snooper and they could do this on a much bigger scale and coverage, as well as in ‘real time’. Snooper provides unbiased and real time insights leading to actionable results.”
Snooper said the funding will be used to fuel the growth in the Australian market, recruit talent, strengthen the user base in regional areas and develop innovative new features in close collaboration with flagship clients.
“We love to be challenged by our clients to push the boundaries of crowdsourcing. We see our clients as long term partners and want to develop a platform that opens a new world of knowledge with them and for them,” said Wespes.
For more information about Snooper please visit: www.snooper-app.com