Social Shopping: Wal-Mart Buys Grabble
- Wal-Mart’s @WalmartLabs providing for the group’s digital and mobile strategy has just purchased the Australian start-up Grabble. Founded in January 2010, this company focuses on the provision of mobile social shopping apps to retailers.
- Soon considered as promising by the incubator Startmate, it has been offered several contracts and funded for the sake of its development.
- Now held to secrecy by the US retail giant, Grabble no longer lets the general public know of its solutions or the issues they are intended to address. The amount of this transaction has not been disclosed.
- Acquiring Grabble fits in the US players’ intent to establish mobile-centred teams as it turns its strategy towards mobile shopping social.
- Also, @WalMartLabs is now building an online and mobile social platform to let customers share as they purchase goods. It should also rely on factors such as customer recommendation and highlight promotional offers to attract more buyers.
- Wal-Mart is betting on interacting channel to improve customer experience and increase its sales. To this end, it also purchased a data mining specialist focusing on social media, Kosmix.
- As the year ends, the Shopycat Facebook app should also allow customers to earn rewards (acting as a gift card applied to the mobile context) and benefit from good deals through group purchases.