About

With Valuelenz we envision to make shopping a joy again, by giving shoppers what's missing, both in-store and remotely. Valuelenz is the most comprehensive hybrid commerce platform for phygital shopping. It empowers retailers of any size to make shopping convenient, personalized, frictionless, and fun. It fills the gaps of physical shopping with digital capabilities, and similarly fills the gaps of e-shops with physical features. No matter where consumers shop (in-store or remotely) and how they shop (self-service or with the help of a sales assistant), Valuelenz covers all shopping contexts, such as self-service in-store with scan-pay-go, and assisted remote shopping with Personal Video Shopping. It brings together the best of both worlds of shopping, physical and digital, into a unified “phygital” experience. With Valuelenz Inclusive (aka 'Evenly'), it facilitates customer support and shopping for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, with the help of three-way video, sign language interpreters and live captioning. It is available for retailers of any size, including SMEs.

Solution & Product

Valuelenz removes the barriers of both physical and digital shopping. It is a hybrid commerce retail-tech SaaS solution, that unifies the best elements of offline and online in a single, exciting, and engaging shopping journey. It supercharges physical retail, excites, and engages customers with the help of 5 individual products, namely: IN-STORE: 1) Autonomous Shopping: Customers can see, touch, feel and smell the actual product, check out & pay with their mobile phone and then get out of the store without waiting in any queue. https://youtu.be/CFxGrM_Tq-Y 2) Clienteling: The salesperson uses Valuelenz to shop together with the customer, prepare the virtual basket and send it for instant payment and self-checkout via the customer’s mobile phone. https://youtu.be/OJ7q9l1OJvc REMOTELY: 3) Personal Video Shopping: Customer support and sales via a video call with a real salesperson, not a bot. Remote customers enjoy a shopping experience, as if they were in-store, but from the comfort of their home. https://youtu.be/14708YySwtE 4) Anyplace Shopping: Consumers can shop from anywhere a QR code can be placed on, such as printed leaflets & catalogues, newspaper inserts, magazine ads, outdoor banners, TV ads, etc. https://youtu.be/sqvMECQ2XVk INCLUSION: 5) For the deaf / hard of hearing and speakers of other languages https://youtu.be/NE8HQAyHJE8 https://youtu.be/fFX_ErwAFDo

Innovation & Scalability

Besides unifying the offline and online channels into a single “phygital” experience, which is clearly an innovative step, Valuelenz introduces the notion of dynamic pricing in physical retail. Powered by AI, the proprietary Price Optimization algorithms of Valuelenz dynamically calculate the personal offer sweet spot, providing instant gratification to customers and markdown optimization to retailers and ultimately boost sales in a highly innovative, yet pragmatic, way. Valuelenz intends to democratize phygital shopping by making its hybrid commerce platform easily and affordably available to SMEs, based its cloud architecture, the support of 26 languages, and its flexible business model.

Traction & achievements

Valuelenz implementations Debenhams / ERA Department Stores, Cyprus (ERA refers to the transformed, re-branded and repositioned fresh, new concept of Debenhams, Cyprus) has been the first to test and implement Valuelenz with considerable success. Features: - In-store unassisted sales and mobile payment - In-store assisted sales and mobile payment - Remote Personal Shopping, via video call and assistance by a personal shopper - Dynamic pricing with personal offers - Remote selling via magazine (QR codes printed next to products of the group’s magazine ‘UNIQUE’) - Customer acquisition and a wealth of data about customers’ behavior in the physical environment - Integration with the group’s loyalty scheme - Integration with the company’s ERP Implementation started in November 2019. Results have been outstanding. Customers that used the app increased their basket value by 112% (vs the basket value of the same customers in a similar previous time period) and at the same time increased their basket profit by 114%. Media Markt, Greece - Personal Video Shopping, via video call and assistance of a personal shopper (https://mediamarkt.valuelenz.com) - Integration with the e-shop Implementation started in March 2020. Results have been great, as Media Markt was able to significantly expand their coverage with a shopping experience as close as possible to in-store, without having a local store. Member of Microsoft for Startups Member of the VISA Innovation Program

Team & Why Us

Valuelenz is led by a very experienced, multidisciplinary core management team with deep domain knowledge (retail, banking, IT, marketing) with more than 20-30 years of professional experience of each key team member. Currently the team comprises 12 members. Why Valuelenz... - Operational and revenue-generating, not an ‘idea’ - Ease of use for consumers: No mobile app to download - Ease of operation for Retailers: Cloud-based usage. Product data uploaded even with a simple Excel file - Focus on SaaS and mid-market, low subscription fee. - Capable of quick global rollout (localization in 26 languages already) - Accelerated retailer onboarding via the aggregator-based go-to-market model - Advanced AI-based optimization algorithms for “personal offers” and “personal rewarding”. Going beyond simple scan-pay-go. A range of advantages for retailers: Customer acquisition + Operational cost reduction + Sales boosting + Markdown optimization+ Insights + Social network exposure

Funding Needs

1.5M€ seed round for a runway of 12 months. Milestones to achieve: Implement Valuelenz at more reputable retailers in selected retail sectors namely consumer electronics, fashion, supermarkets and malls. Continue the product development according to the predefined roadmap Form partnership with more retailer aggregators (i.e. a third-party payment provider, a POS provider, etc.) to accelerate go-to-market Explore various candidate countries for international expansion