'Time is money' - for e-commerce businesses that statement couldn’t be truer. From the moment a potential customer lands on an e-commerce business’s product webpage the clock begins ticking. The more time that elapses, the more chance there is for distractions to take the customer away from the buying process, perhaps never to return.
Accelerating the decision-making process would, therefore, go a great distance in minimising the potential for disruption and improve chances of the e-tailer making the sale. But how does such a business go about spurring the customer into quicker clicking?
Step in Taggstar Ltd - a unique company leading the way in its respective sector, having developed state-of-the-art software which is provided as a service (SaaS) to help online retailers improve conversion rates and increase overall sales.
The intelligent software overlays persuasive messaging containing product-related information on webpages in real time, impressing on the customer stats such as how many people are viewing the product at that moment in time, how many purchases have been made over a certain period and the quantity of stock remaining.
The software, which uses a patent-pending algorithm, can also display special messages such as product reviews from satisfied customers, or messages derived from trends such as fast selling ‘on fire’ products. The system leverages real-time data to combine messages to best effect so as to create a sense of urgency and/or engagement with the customer to evoke a ‘buy now’ response.
The solution has been designed for all types of e-commerce, including: retail, property, entertainment, travel and finance, and works across all desktop, tablet and mobile devices as a responsive solution. Since it launched, Taggstar has served over 400m messages to some of the largest e-tailers, generating order conversion rate uplift of up to 10%.
Taggstar launched with Shop Direct Group, a £1.74 billion retailer with a roster encompassing Littlewoods, Isme and very.co.uk, in February 2014. Taggstar is now embedded across 100% of site traffic of very.co.uk, serving more than 70m messages each month. Very.co.uk has experienced a 2% uplift in order conversion by using Taggstar Basket Module, one of Taggstar’s flagship products.
Taggstar is also doing a phenomenal job on its current trial with Argos – in just 27 days from the start of the trial, Taggstar’s technology has generated a 2.28% increase in order uplift, resulting in a significant increase in revenues for Argos.
The company is actively demonstrating the power of the solution by providing free trials that are on-going with other retailers including Thomas Cook Online and lastminute.com, which gives some insight into why the company is looking for a minimum of £200,000: to fund working capital while any trials are converted to formalised contracts and any sales are finalised.
Advanced discussions are currently taking place between Taggstar and other leading UK multinationals, including ASOS, Tata Group and BA. There’s also a key to unlock the international market in the pipeline in the form of the company signing a trial with Naspers, a Johannesburg-listed global group of ecommerce and media brands with presence in over 130 countries worldwide.
More recent times have seen the company attract prominent backers to the business including Sir Stuart Rose (former Chairman of M&S); Rob Hersov (Invest Africa), Bentworth Holdings Ltd and Ariadne Capital.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£464,680
Hoptroff's is a technology entity disrupting the way time is measured in the virtual world. It asserts that its Traceable Time as a Service (TTaaS) is more cost-effective than current solutions, which require clients to set up and operate complex multi-supplier, mixed hardware-software installations. Hoptroff claims that it has onboarded new clients, including a Tier 1 Investment Bank, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has also partnered with the media industry, allowing broadcasters to transfer and re-synchronise large files using IP distribution, with greater ease and at a lower cost. Hoptroff has tied up with global standards setter, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, (SMPTE) to validate Hoptroff time for SMPTE Precision Time Protocol. It intends to become a contender in a $1.2 billion timing solutions market. Hoptroff will use the investment to accelerate client growth, hire key personnel, ramp up marketing activities, invest in product development, and expand its global timing hub network.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,108,935
Passing boxes began in 2012 after Donna's Father falling ill; he produced a red folder containing memories, birth certificates, photos, bank statements, passwords, and lots more. This gave Donna the idea to create the world’s most comprehensive website for dealing with death enabling people to talk about death. It provides services to help secure your digital legacy and pass on the things that really matter.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£186,630
Sensate from Bioself Technology is wearable and uses infrasound technology to provide the benefits of long-term meditation. They have successfully sold and test the Beta product and will be using funds raised to develop the product ready for commercial sales.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£91,550
My Beauty Squad is a technology platform having a team of 120 mobile beauticians across four cities. It aims to be the number one beauty platform for women to book mobile-beautician appointments, watch tutorials, get advice on beauty products, and be part of a beauty community. The My Beauty Squad app consists of features like an online booking medium for mobile beauticians, promotional apps for big brands, and blogger apps with product information. The company has completed over 5800 bookings since launching its application. It won the 2019 'Best Mobile Beauty Specialists' Award by SME News. The company will use the investment to improve its technology, operations and marketing in London and other major cities. It also plans to launch its proprietary beauty product lines, including lash collection (October 2020) and beauty tools set (February 2021).
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£60,451
Channels such as eBay and Amazon present a tremendous opportunity for SME’s to sell their products benefiting their businesses. This, however, also introduces a range of new challenges e.g. how to keep stock up to date on all channels. Developing proprietary systems to manage these is complex and expensive. ESeller Express offers a cost effective, instantly available, cloud based system which arms SME’s with just the tools they need to manage their businesses efficiently.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£23,000
SupportRoom is an online mental health and well-being platform connecting individuals and businesses with therapists. The company's core proposition is its Employee Support Platform (ESP) that focuses on improving employee well-being and engagement. It asserts that its portal generates employee anonymised data accessible to present organisations that can then use this to identify real problems and implement change without making assumptions. SupportRoom argues that clients can communicate with therapists via in-app messaging, videos and voice messages on its portal. SupportRoom has secured six partnerships to drive B2C and B2B growth. The company has over 600 verified external therapists on its roll call. It was chosen as a 'Top 50 Most Exciting Mhealth platforms for 2021' by Welp magazine. SupportRoom states it will use the investment to build the best-in-class virtual mental health clinic with therapists and hire a team of solution sellers and marketers to grow its business.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£317,310
Pavegen has discovered a breakthrough smart city technology that turns footsteps into electricity and data. Its technology can power off-grid applications like environmental monitoring, lighting and data transmission. Recent Pavegen installations include transport hubs, smart city developments, retail destinations and educational institutions in Hong Kong, USA, India, Korea, UAE, Thailand and UK. Additionally, its clients include Cisco, Abu Dhabi International Airport, Intel, Siemens, Google, TFL and Adidas. Further, it also won ‘the PropTech award’ and ‘Smart Cities Interactive Innovation award’ at SXSW. Our projects attract global coverage in publications like CNBC, Forbes, FT, BBC, and Wired. Currently, it is raising funds to reduce manufacturing costs, grow global sales and develop the SaaS data platform.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£2,431,900
what3words is a company whose mission is to make finding and sharing exact locations a simplified task. It has divided the world into 3m squares and given each square a unique combination of three words. what3words is backed by organisations such as Mercedes-Benz, Intel Capital and Sony Innovation Fund. The company's app provides a precise location to drones, driverless cars and voice-controlled devices, in turn, boosting businesses. Emergency services and NGOs are also using what3words for critical services and saving lives. Till date, the company has received over £50 million of funding and was the 'App of the Day' in 143 countries. The company will use the investment to become a global standard for communicating location.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£7,155,716
FlairBox is an end-to-end hiring platform that allows performers to share a wide range of their work and entertainment industry professionals to hire their choice of performers. FlairBox uses proprietary 'Intelligent Casting' AI, to rank performers based on suitability for a role. The company has 2,900 performers on its database, 2,500 of which are active on the platform and 438 of which are on paid premium accounts or premium trials. FlairBox has been awarded a £277,000 Innovate UK SMART Grant to fund its 'Machine Learning' and AI development over the next 18 months. The company points out that casting directors of notable films like 'Mission Impossible', 'Harry Potter', and 'Top Boy' have used FlairBox's services. FlairBox will use 42.88% of the investment on marketing, 34.5% for paying salaries, 9.6% towards paying office rentals, 5% towards legal expenses, 4% towards software expenses, 2.25% towards design expenses, 1.2% as accountant fees, and 0.57% as insurance fees.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£338,151
