Carrefour launches Smart Shopper app in China combining indoor location-sensing technology, shopping list, advertising system allowing retailers to notify shoppers about promotions, products relevant to them

Cindy Allen

Cindy Allen

SHANGHAI and AUSTIN, Texas , June 24, 2013 (press release) – Indoor Location Sensing, Social Shopping List, and Sophisticated Advertising System Enable Retailers and Brands to Reach Shoppers at their Point of Decision

Appconomy today launched its first-in-China, context-aware, mobile marketing platform with the introduction of the Carrefour Smart Shopper app. The Carrefour Smart Shopper app combines state-of-the-art indoor location sensing technology, a user-friendly, social shopping list, and a sophisticated advertising system that enables retailers to engage with their customers in a next generation of personalization. The company believes apps like the Carrefour app, powered by the Appconomy platform, will fundamentally alter the way people shop and the way retailers and brands reach and engage their target consumers.

Powered by the Appconomy platform, the Carrefour Smart Shopper app lets shoppers easily browse the most current discounts and promotions and build shopping lists on their smartphones that they can share with others. Additionally, while inside the store, shoppers can easily use the app to search for and navigate directly to any product they are seeking to buy. Finally, Appconomy’s context-aware engine routes targeted advertisements and offers from merchants and brands to shoppers while they are near the products they are seeking to buy or that they may have an interest in purchasing.

Launched initially for the world’s second largest retailer as the Carrefour Smart Shopper, the app’s initial three core functions are:

Social Shopping List: Contains everything on sale and being promoted, as well as non-sale, regular items, in the store and allows shoppers to create lists of the items they want. A social function allows different shoppers to cooperate to make sure no item is forgotten.

Navigation Guide: Step by step navigation tells shoppers how to get to the area in the store where the product they want is stocked. The indoor positioning and unique sending technology developed by Appconomy is designed to be hardware-agnostic, allowing it to be suited to any store layout and take advantage of increasingly sophisticated location-sensing hardware advances in the future.

Promotional Information: Informs shoppers through targeted, in-app notifications about promotions and products that are relevant to them, as determined by the context of their location inside the store, their selection of particular products, or other dimensions of their behavior and profile.

Currently in use at selected Carrefour stores in the greater Shanghai area, the Carrefour Smart Shopper will be rolled-out across the remainder of Carrefour locations in Shanghai, available to smartphone users through the iTunes App Store and popular Android app stores. Appconomy is currently pursuing and implementing other customers in addition to Carrefour in line with its ambitious international expansion strategy.

“The Carrefour Smart Shopper app is set to become one of the showcase examples of the power of the Appconomy platform to re-invent industries, beginning with retail,” said Brian Magierski, President and Co-CEO of Appconomy. "We enable leading brands and brick-and-mortar companies to provide a next generation of personalization to their customers through apps like the Carrefour Smart Shopper that are far superior to that of e-commerce today.”

Charles Liu, senior vice president and CTO of Appconomy, commented: “As a leader in this industry, Appconomy is in a position to set expectations that will determine how these apps function in the future. Our widespread partner network in the US and China gives us access to the most cutting-edge technology, expertise, and financing in the largest global markets and underpins what we are seeing as strong momentum behind the Appconomy platform. We look forward to announcing new technology partnerships and retail customers in the coming weeks and months.”

Appconomy expects to announce new partnerships with retailers and technology providers in the next month. The Carrefour Smart Shopper app represents the latest example of the Appconomy platform powering retail solutions. In 2012, the company successfully launched its Jinjin Marketplace app and brand in China, an aggregated marketplace for food & beverage, health & beauty, and other chain store retailers to offer mobile, loyalty and rewards programs.

About Appconomy

Appconomy is a software company with a groundbreaking context-aware, mobile marketing platform that enhances users’ shopping experiences and delivers benefits to retailers. Appconomy’s Carrefour Smart Shopper app represents the latest example of the Appconomy platform powering retail solutions. In 2012, the company successfully launched its Jinjin Marketplace app and brand in China, an aggregated marketplace for food & beverage, health & beauty, and other chain store retailers to offer mobile, loyalty and rewards programs. The company is privately held and dual-headquartered in Shanghai, China and Austin, Texas. Appconomy is venture-backed, with strategic investors including Qiming Ventures, Neusoft Holdings, True Ventures, and WTI. The company’s customers include major Chinese retailers and global, retail brands that rely on Appconomy for strategic insights and products in mobile retail technology.

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