Shop the clever way with Profital
Get the best offers on your mobile phone instead of spending hours searching for good offers yourself. The new app, Profital, can help you out with this.
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Most people in Switzerland look for information on offers online before deciding to buy. OK, perhaps that’s not true in every case. But researchers at the University of Zurich have found out that people do look for offers online 75% of the time, as shown in their research report “Internet-Anwendungen und deren Nutzung in der Schweiz” (Internet applications and their use in Switzerland).
How an app can make your life easier
Until now, searching for the best offers for each product has been fairly difficult. Each retailer has their own website, and you have to go to the effort of clicking through various product categories. Even finding out how to search for branches is not always an intuitive process. Powered by internal Innovation Management and the Offerista Group, Swiss Post has found a way to bring together all your shopping needs in one place. The start-up Profital is the first Swiss provider to offer printed advertising leaflets in digital form. You can receive local offers from the latest advertising leaflets as if on a silver platter via the app and the online portal. In this way, Profital links the physical and digital shopping experiences. And the best part: you decide which channel is the right one for you.
What Profital can do
Once the app is installed on your mobile phone, you can mark your favourite leaflets and then receive an automatic notification once a new one has been added. Of course, you can also browse through all the other leaflets.
The wish list function is especially handy. If you spot an interesting offer, you can simply mark it, and the next time you buy something from that provider, you will remember why you are there. In addition, if retailers have their own online shop, there are direct links to the products. You can also submit your online order straight from the leaflet without having to spend a long time trawling through the website. If you are looking for the item of your dreams but want to see it in real life first, Profital can also show you where your preferred retailer’s nearest store is thanks to the app’s localization function. It will also display the opening times so you know whether it’s worth making the trip on the same day.
“Consumers have the same needs, but the preferred medium is different for many people.”
Profital is a new addition to the Swiss marketplace. Raphael Thommen, Head of Profital, explains how the launch went and what we can expect in the future.
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Mr Thommen, Profital has been online for two or three months. More than 250,000 active users, over 10,000 Facebook fans. Are you satisfied with the launch?
We are very satisfied with the launch and are receiving plenty of positive feedback from our users. For example, the Profital app has already been rated as “very good” more than 500 times in the App Store and Play Store. Our user numbers are increasing substantially every day, and we recorded more than 1 million leaflet openings in the first two months alone.
Swiss Post: Why has there never been an app like this before in the Swiss marketplace? Is the competition asleep?
Swiss Post has been active in the unaddressed promotional mailings market for a long time and understands the potential and impact of advertising leaflets. We have a correspondingly wide range of expertise and are extremely confident that we can also apply this online. Consumers have the same needs, but the preferred medium is different for many people.
Swiss Post: How will Profital continue to develop? What’s next?
We will continue expanding the range of offers on Profital to provide our users with a comprehensive overview of the best offers in their area. This is why we are trying to integrate as many leaflets and promotions as possible into Profital. The technology behind the Profital app is also continually being developed, and its functions are adapted to our users’ needs. We are already working to incorporate additional functions with a wow factor, such as video integration and dynamic leaflets. As well as striving to meet our users’ needs, we are also focusing on retailers’ needs. For example, leaflets can also be viewed via a Switzerland-wide partner network, which includes Stocard, the largest loyalty card app in Switzerland. This ensures that retailers always reach their customers at the right point on the customer journey – when they plan their purchase and during the shopping process.