DiJiPOP LLC, an on-demand shopper-marketing technology platform, began just one year ago as a startup that came out of the Betaspring incubator.
In that short amount of time, the company has increased its headcount by nine staffers – eight full-time employees and a contractor – and outgrown its offices in East Greenwich. The biggest news, however, is its latest round of fundraising brought in $1 million, bringing DiJiPOP’s to-date total to $2 million.
The funds will be used for sales and marketing expansion, technology development, and the creation of a client services division.
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“We’re going to max out in the space that we’re currently at,” said Ji Kim, founder and CEO, to Providence Business News, announcing plans to move to 3 Davol Square in Providence as of Jan. 1.
Kim said that, depending on how the year goes, he sees the potential to grow the staff to 30 people.
PBN: The last time you spoke with Providence Business News was in January. How has DiJiPop grown and changed over the past year?
KIM: DiJiPOP has had a tremendous year of growth. With an addition of nine full-time employees, we have been able to staff in the areas of technology, sales and marketing; inclusive of both executive and execution-level team members. Our technology has continued to be refined with multiple releases and extensions as well as growing our clientele roster. In addition, we were privileged to be awarded the 2010 Innovation of the Year finalist for information technology by PBN, a great achievement to be recognized by our colleagues and business leaders in the state. We just recently closed another $1 million in funding to continue this growth into 2011.
PBN: In this key online shopping period, you mentioned that retailers are not doing enough to monetize “digital self space.” First, what is a retailer’s digital shelf space and second, what should they be doing better?
KIM: / “Digital shelf space” is any digital property within an e-commerce store. Just as brick-and-mortar stores have physical shelf space – or real estate within the store – e-commerce sites have digital shelf space. Business owners running an e-commerce property need to do a better job of monetizing each digital square foot (or pixel) to ensure they are driving the highest amount of profit. The nuance here is that profit can come from two distinct places: 1) completed orders and 2) advertising dollars paid for page views or impressions.
Ninety-seven percent of visitors who come to an e-commerce store don’t end up [making a purchase], so e-retailers have an incredible opportunity to monetize that traffic by selling this digital shelf space to their vendor partners (consumer brands).
PBN: Why do you say brands are “wasting” dollars buying up banner ads? Isn’t that a good thing? What would you recommend?
KIM: We’re specifically talking about consumer brands that rely on retail to sell the majority of their products. Simply put: brands that we see on the shelves at the big box retail stores. The key difference is where they are putting their marketing dollars. In order to see the biggest return on investment, brands need to put more money in places where shoppers are versus consumers. A “shopper” is defined as one who has determined a need and is therefore “in-market” for a particular good or service. When that need is determined, the first place they go to research is retailer websites. The second is search engines which eventually lead them back to retailer websites.
Our point is that brands need to be where the shopper is more likely to purchase, which is on retailer websites. Our solution was built for retailers and brands, so they can automate the exchange of marketing dollars for paid product placements.
PBN: Overall, what kind of industry trends have you seen develop, flourish or wither in the online retail ads in the past year?
KIM: First, retailers are not monetizing digital shelf space which is odd because they do a great job at monetizing “physical shelf space” (i.e. in store). Second, brands have little influence on where their products are placed across their retailers’ websites.
The other key issue is brands are wasting significant amount of dollars buying up banner ads on non-shopping sites, when they should be doing more shopper marketing, product placement, etc., at the point-of-purchase.
PBN: What does the future hold for DiJiPOP?
KIM: 2011 will be a breakout year for DiJiPOP. We are in contract review stage with some of world’s largest retailers. The majority of the nation’s top retailers have advertising programs as a top priority in 2011 for their e-commerce businesses and we’re building great dialogue and relationships with many of these retailers. In addition, brands and their digital ad agencies are eager to run digital shopper marketing programs with us when we secure these retailer partnerships.
Due to this momentum, we’re squarely equipped with a solid foundation to support our retailer and advertiser needs. The team will continue to grow in parallel and we’re hiring additional account support folks to handle the clientele roster. As of Jan. 1, we’re relocating to 3 Davol Square in the Knowledge District.
