Grability gives consumers an intuitive grocery-shopping experience, offering virtual aisles, interactive shelves and scales and drag-and-drop shopping. And it works with leading brands to market groceries in a much less invasive way.
Mobile-shopping technology company Grability announced yesterday that European retail giant El Corte Inglés will launch a mobile shopping platform for its Portuguese market powered by Grability technology. Executives from both companies say the deal—which marks Grability’s latest expansion in Europe—will bolster El Corte Inglés’ position as one of the country’s leading online grocery retailers.
Grability’s rise signals a major departure from the current state of e-commerce for the Fast Moving Consumer Good industry where just between 1% and 3% of sales are currently online and, of those, only a small fraction are mobile. With Grability, retailers aim to raise online sales to 10% by giving consumers an easy-to-use and intuitive user experience that draws on the in-store shopping experience they are well acquainted with.
“With this deal, El Corte Inglés will unlock the tremendous potential of the mobile channel by giving their customers in Portugal’s grocery market the best mobile shopping experience in the world and a way of shopping that they all know how to use.”
Since launching in December 2014 for the Spanish retail market, El Cortes Inglés says it has experienced a surge in mobile grocery sales as well as marked customer enthusiasm for the new platform. According to El Corte Inglés executives, Grability has also helped position the company as the most innovative online grocer in the countries it operates.
“It’s exactly the kind of innovation we love to see—one which directly serves our customers by radically improving the shopping experience. We’re very excited to expand the Grability technology into our e-commerce operations in Portugal.”
Major brands harnessing mobile marketing strategy
Grability also works closely with major brands by allowing them to market to consumers in an efficient and non-invasive way, compared with some banner advertising that’s been shown to deter customers from current apps.
Grability partner brands — which include Coca-Cola, Unilever, P&G, Heineken, Oreo, Pernod-Ricard, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnnie Walker and Wrigley — say Grability’s crisp presentation of products and the new opportunities for mobile product placement, which, until now, have been unavailable on e-commerce platforms and resemble offline marketing initiatives by brands in-store, represent another major benefit of the technology.
Led by CEO Sebastian Mejia, Grability backers include Chris Burch, co-founder of Tory Burch LLC and CEO of Burch Creative Capital, and Marcello V. Bottoli, Operating Partner at Advent International and former chairman, president and CEO of Louis Vuitton Malletier, as well as former CEO of Samsonite.