Bijou Commerce raises £2m in seed funding to help fashion retailers spearhead mobile monetisation
Bijou Commerce, the B2B SaaS platform that delivers native mobile app solutions on iOS and Android has raised £2m.
The main backers of the platform for fashion retailers that helps them make more money from their mobile channel are the UK’s leading venture builder Blenheim Chalcot, who have founded and scaled over 30 tech-led businesses, as well as angel investors including Tom Singh (founder of New Look). Dan Cobley, former Google MD UK & Ireland has also joined Bijou Commerce’s Board of Directors.
Bijou Commerce will use the funds to evolve its feature and product offering to clients, adding modular bolt-ons to match retail technology advances such as bluetooth and wifi beacons. It will also automate client onboarding with direct API feeds, front end customization, personalization and automatic copy production – cutting the costs of delivery dramatically. The company will also move to make its platform code open source, providing the ability for third party developers to build new functionality and sell it through a platform marketplace.
Bijou Commerce is also announcing that Beth Wond, co-founder of eCommerce technology company Made By Silk has joined as Managing Director. As part of the British Fashion Council’s Digital Innovation Pillar Committee, Wond helped international designer brands define and derive their digital propositions; she has also been featured in VOGUE’s list of 100 most influential figures in online fashion.
Tom Singh commented: “Despite sales through mobile accounting for over a half of all UK online retail spend and 85% of consumers preferring mobile native apps, only 2.3% of retailers believe their business is at the cutting edge of mCommerce. Taking advantage of this market opportunity, Bijou Commerce can offer single image Tinder Swipe browsing, revolutionising mobile buying for users and making it more profitable for its retail partners”.
Dan Cobley added: “The world has gone mobile, but retailers are playing catch up. Most do not have the technical resources to deliver what they know their customers want. With Bijou they can close the gap quickly, and deliver valuable insights, higher conversion rates and happier customers”.
Bijou Commerce drives revenue through a SaaS model; clients enter two year contracted engagements, paying a small development charge, a minimal monthly service charge, and a performance-based incentive bonus linked to the increase in conversion rate delivered.
Bijou’s proprietary platform which provides a single image browser UX/UI has already been tested and benchmarked through its open test app, “The Edit”, which was launched in February 2015 to validate the user experience. To date fifteen leading UK retailers and publishers in the fashion and beauty sector have already agreed to work with Bijou Commerce, with more than 300 retailers in the active pipeline for 2016.
