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When Marc Freed-Finnegan and Jonathan Wall left the Google Wallet team in 2012 to launch a startup, Silicon Valey watchers figured they were cooking up another mobile wallet. The two are finally revealing more details about their San Francisco-based startup Index, formerly known as Tappmo, and there’s isn't a wallet in sight. Instead, the stealthy startup is essentially offering to turn every store into the same sleek, technology-driven experience of an Apple store, where you get that one-two punch of efficient, yet tailored service.
The two co-founders say Index has two major goals: help retailers create a personalized shopping experience and offer vastly improved customer service. “It’s increasingly easier to buy the same item across many different retailers, so not only are companies competing on price, but also for the same customers,” says Freed-Finnegan. “Companies have to give a better experience than their competitor to win.”
To hit both targets, Index is building a "commerce network," which collects data (with your consent) about your spending habits and in-store preferences. For example, if you shop at Target every month for dog food and always prefer an e-mail receipt, Index’s software would give Target the option to send a Purina coupon to your phone and remember to automatically e-mail you a receipt.
Wall and Freed-Finnegan are also trying to make the process of redeeming a coupon from a Facebook "like" or a tweet simple enough that people will actually do it. “We’d like to apply the same ease and ubiquity that Visa has brought to tier-one retailers to all these new forms of tender,” says Wall. “If a retailer wants to e-mail you a coupon for 10 percent off, or offer free valet parking to their Facebook followers, you should be able to gracefully redeem those offers at the point of sale system.”
Index has launched a SDK that retailers can use to build mobile apps to make coupon redemption easier, and has plans for its own app that can be used in multiple stores. The startup won't go into detail about the user experience in the app, but we can probably expect a list of store preferences (e-mail receipts versus paper), plus coupons and sales alerts.
The startup won’t say which retailers it’s working with, but that its software will live on store’s point of sale systems to collect data each time you check out. Like the Apple Store, store employees will carry tablets and smartphones given to them by Index so they can look up your spending history to make product recommendations.
Thanks to Index, the next time a salesperson greets you when you walk in to a store, they might be able to actually help you find the same pair of jeans you bought six months prior even if they didn't work there when you bought them.
