A local catalog and e-commece veteran is signing up some big-name users for his new company's social commerce platform.
Jeffery Giesener is the founder/CEO of
ShoppeSimple, a web app that lets retailers broadcast deals to customers via e-mail, web sites, and social media.
ShoppeSimple recently added
PBS, Rite Aid, and four other clients to be announced in August. Merchants pay a commission for each sale generated by the platform. Consumers can sign up for free and anonymously to receive the deal alerts via RSS, Twitter, Facebook, Google or Yahoo homepages, or other channels.
The ability for consumers to sign up for alerts without handing over personal information is an important part of ShoppeSimple's design. As an employee at DoubleClick during the early 2000s, Giesener saw first-hand how not being careful about protecting consumer's privacy can lead to
complications.
"I kind of said: how would I build a marketing channel, knowing what I know but respecting consumer privacy and delivering something that was never in place before?" says Giesener.
Since consumers choose what alerts they want to receive, and how and where they want to receive them, retailers are able to reach an audience that is already interested in their products.
ShoppeSimple has 10 employees. In addition to rolling out pages for new clients, the company is also working on raising capital to support its growth. It also plans to advertise to consumers in 2011.
Source: Jeffery Giesener, ShoppeSimple
Writer:
Dan Haugen