From the identification of a space in a sector where the “digital and technological revolution had not yet taken place” to a leading company in Europe, but with even greater ambitions, in just over 10 years. It’s the story of ShopFully, a digital platform that simplifies consumer shopping and takes them to the physical store (drive-to-store). A digital company serving, and not replacing, the physical born and raised in Italy.
Stefano Portu, CEO and founder, how did the idea of ShopFully come about?
“Alessandro Palmieri, the other founder, and I came from the successful experience of Buongiorno, an Italian mobile company that we have followed from the startup phases. A little over ten years ago we chose to try to recreate an Italian company capable of rewriting the rules of a sector not only locally, but internationally. Our approach to getting to ShopFully was a bit counterintuitive. We didn’t start from a “brilliant” idea, but from research, numbers in hand, of a space in which it was possible to implement a digital revolution that hadn’t happened yet”.
And what did you discover?
“In retail, despite the arrival of e-commerce, 90% of purchases were still made in-store. And we discovered that in an industry worth about 30 trillion dollars, about 25 billion dollars were spent on flyers, half of which was in Europe. We therefore focused on the creation of a platform, called DoveConviene, to allow consumers to compare all the offers in the shops near them. From there we began to grow, first only organically, then also through acquisitions both in Italy and abroad, on a path that led us to increasingly develop DoveConviene and, in 2020, to acquire two other marketplaces PromoQui and VolantinoFacile . To which we added last year the acquisition of Tiendeo, a Spanish company active in the drive-to-store sector. We are now active in 12 countries, have over 370 employees and aim to grow further, with an offer that combines marketplaces for consumers with a business platform for our customers”.
Do you have other operations planned?
“In Europe – especially in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal – we are already a point of reference, as in Australia. The Tiendeo operation also opened up the Latin American market for us. Our next step is to continue growing where we are already present and to strengthen ourselves, for example in France where the market is large. 2022 was a positive year with significant growth for ShopFully. The goal is to become a leading player on a global level, so further stages of growth are foreseen in our journey. Not excluding possible further acquisitions in the medium and long term”.
Is it possible to get to the landing on the stock exchange?
“ShopFully’s ambition to become an international leader means that other financial operations will also be required. These are things we think about and will work on in due course. ShopFully will need to be able to attract investors, but I personally have no preclusions on which path to take. The quotation is not excluded, but the path we will take will also be determined by the conditions of the economy and the market”.
The service you provide to consumers is an aid in their search for savings. In these months of high inflation, have you noticed a greater interest in your platforms?
“In recent months, consumers have spent more and more time looking for promotions and maximizing value for money. Not only did people who are more attentive to price spend more time on our platforms, but also those with greater spending power, indicating a transversal attention to the quality-price ratio and value for money. In Italy with a particular focus on food. To give some examples: the time spent looking for the best offer for oil increased by 286%, for meat the growth was 196%”.
How much can people save by using your platforms?
“We have estimates that we update annually. An average consumer can achieve savings of around one thousand euros each year by identifying discounts relating to various sectors, such as food, technology and furniture-DIY”.
ShopFully is an example of the use of digital at the service of the physical place, not as a replacement. Do you think it could be a viable way in other sectors to combine two often opposing entities?
“I think there is room but for a very simple reason. The attention and time that people can devote to digital has increased, but remains limited. For many more hours our attention is dedicated to the real world and the numbers, for the world of retail, still testify that the majority of purchases in the world are made physically. Digital, in our case, is a means to bring the consumer to make the purchase in the local shop, saving time and money. It is sometimes difficult to find ways to connect digital and physical, but there are gigantic opportunities to be seized. My suggestion is to be guided by the numbers and to think outside the box”.
How important is it to have tech excellence in Italy like ShopFully? What must the system do to allow more to grow?
“Tech is the sector in which I have been immersed for 20 years. Compared to 10 years ago, when ShopFully started, the situation in Italy has improved a lot and I see scaleups growing in various sectors. Investments have increased and the concept is finally passing that startups cannot be reduced to the romantic idea of the garage: they are strategic enterprises that create wealth, employment and innovation. However, if we want to build the Luxottica and Ferrero of tomorrow, if we want to retain our brightest minds, it is necessary to work with large private and institutional entities to further increase the size of the resources invested. We are accelerating but, for example, we are still less than a sixth of the investments in startups that are made in France. We are still late. In order not to fall behind and be able to write the rules of the future of any sector in Italy, we have to go much faster than that”.