Fairfax Media has announced a strategic investment in shopping innovation start-up Pricemaker. The media company has become a 50% shareholder in the business, in a move which “supports their commitment to growing mobile and digital capabilities to benefit customers and audiences”.
The partners have also confirmed they plan to put “significant” funds behind an advertising and marketing campaign.
Robert Hutchinson, Fairfax Media’s Product Development Director says that Pricemaker fosters direct connections between businesses and their customers.
“We see Pricemaker as a real innovation for our retail advertisers. It is a mobile platform that gets customers through their doors. The Pricemaker promise is about making shopping around easy. For businesses it’s a lead generator that lets sales people make their most compelling offer to a fully qualified customer,” he says.
Shoppers use the app and website to talk with local businesses about what they’re looking to buy, and receive personalised offers, made to suit their needs. This, in combination with it generating sales leads for businesses, “makes it a win-win for everyone involved”.
“I’m excited about this investment for so many reasons. It’s Kiwi ingenuity at its best and reinforces our belief that we can help make great ideas succeed by using our resources, networks and market share to reach New Zealanders,” says Hutchinson.
Pricemaker Chief Executive, Erin Walshe, says the support they’ve received from Fairfax to date has been outstanding. “It’s not often you come across a team of people that share the same vision and enthusiasm for your business, so we couldn’t have asked for a better partner than Fairfax.
“Initially, the partnership means we can talk with Fairfax’s national network of customers to speed the onboarding of businesses and their products.”
Once a solid number of businesses are on board, and shoppers are getting lots of useful offers, Pricemaker and Fairfax will work together to start spreading the Pricemaker word using Fairfax’s vast media portfolio.
The investment includes a significant marketing spend commitment.
“This means we can get more businesses, more things to shop around for, more shoppers, more great offers, and more locations around the country,” says Walshe. “The most exciting thing for us though, is that this partnership gives us a very real opportunity to achieve our goal of making shopping around easy, for everyone.”
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