RetailMeNot acquires mobile shopping app Pickie
The largest digital coupon marketplace in the world, RetailMeNot, Inc., has announced the acquisition of Pickie, an iPad app that allows users to create personalized fashion and retail magazines, according to TechCrunch.
Pickie, an app that focuses on mobile shopping experiences, was developed over the past two years. In 2012 it raised $1 million in venture funding to finance its expansion efforts. The goal was to create an application that would optimize shopping for a tablet experience and the app accomplished that, as Pickie was ranked in the top ten in more than 30 countries and often featured as an essential catalog app in Apple's iPad app store, according to Pickie's website.
Pickie is a shopping magazine app that acts as both a catalog and a magazine where users can also click to purchase products that are tailored to their personal tastes and preferences. According to Pickie's website, the company has been working to create a version of the app that allows brands to use the technology to make their own iPad app catalogs. RetailMeNot believes this acquisition strategy will help the company achieve its plans for future growth.
"We believe that the skills that went into the creation of the Pickie app, when integrated with the scalability of RetailMeNot's technology, can be a significant match that will aid our company's future growth," said Steven Pho, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, RetailMeNot, Inc., in a press release.
RetailMeNot allows users to access digital coupons from hundreds of thousands of retailers. According to a press release, the company estimates that $3.5 billion in paid retailer sales resulted from its coupons in 2013.
Users will no longer be able to download the Pickie app from Apple's iPad app store. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.