Swedish DIY ecommerce platform Tictail has raised €1.2 million ($1.6m) in seed funding and launched a subscription service so that users can sign up for updates from their favourite stores on the site.
The company’s seed round was led by Balderton Capital and Klause Hommels, members of its advisory board, including Spotify CPO Gustav Söderström and Tumblr COO Fredrik Nylander, have also made personal investments.
Tictail’s main markets at the moment are in the Nordics, Germany and UK. With the new funding the firm hopes to focus on UK specifically, with bigger growth targets also set for Europe.
Tictail is free to use and designed to help indie brands and boutiques get online and drive sales with minimal fuss.
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The site has been described by Wired as the ‘Tumblr of ecommerce’ and its simple layout and method for setting up and adding products does indeed put users in mind of the simple blog service.
Clean templates allow retailers to choose a layout, add items, connect to Facebook and add details like local currency and tax rates. The whole thing can be quickly previewed and then launched.
Recently, Tictail unveiled its ‘To-do Feed’, a personal marketing and sales assistant that generates daily tasks to improve customer relations. This includes social media advice, reminders for orders that need shipping, SEO advice and CRM support.
As part of the announcement today, Tictail is also launching a subscription feature which lets shoppers subscribe to their favourite stores to get updates about new products, discounts and other news.
As a simple service that works to get traditional retail online, it’s a fair way to improve sales prospects without having to code and mess with layouts. This could be a handy tool for those looking to sell online but hoping to avoid the need to code or host their own site.
With Etsy working to target the UK market, the competition is heating up for indie sellers looking for a platform. Etsy naturally has a focus on crafting, so a service like Tictail has room to grow when it comes to the sales of many other products.
Image credit: epSos.de
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