Retail news : Swarm Raises $3.4 Million To Help Board Shops Run More Efficiently

Swarm provides analytics and marketing tools for small and medium-sized retailers, quickly gaining traction in snow, skate and surf shops as well mainstream apparel and footwear retailers.

The funding will help Swarm deliver on the promise that anyone can operate their brick and mortar business with the same data-driven efficiency as e-commerce. Specifically, Swarm says its retailers are leveraging foot traffic and conversion insights to improve sales performance, as well as using automated marketing tools to drive store visits, customer engagement and purchase activity.

“Small and medium sized retailers have traditionally been at a disadvantage relative to big box retailers.” Says Swarm’s co-founder and CEO, Rudd Davis. “Technology, however, is leveling the playing field. Swarm is giving smaller retailers a significant advantage by being able to understand and engage their customers in ways that even the largest retailers cannot.”

Platform and Partners

Swarm uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi sensors that are fully integrated into the point of sale (POS). Swarm has spent the last year building deep relationships with leading POS providers ranging form industry heavyweights like Retail Pro to newer, cloud-based POS providers like Vend, LightSpeed, Shopify and Erply. In all Swarm has integrated with over 15 different POS platforms.

“Many of the analytics tools, like footfall and dwell time analysis, have historically been outside of scope of the IT budgets for smaller retailers, which is unfortunate because having the data they provide can be the deciding factor between stagnating and growing in their retail business. We are excited about the partnership with Swarm because it helps our customers set and reach their goals by adding full spectrum analytics tools to their retail management software installation” said Mike Bishop, VP of Business Development at Retail Pro International, LLC.

Sales Momentum and Customer Success

Swarm is currently deployed in over 1,000 retail stores in the US and abroad. Their customer base ranges from upstart lifestyle apparel retailers like Rapha Cycle Club and Mollusk Surf Shop on up to a recent 800-store deployment from a major apparel holding company. “Our customers (retailers) are the most important part of this business. Delivering an easy-to-use product that solves real problems for them is what drives us.” says co-founder and EVP of sales, Ryan Denehy
Swarm is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Los Angeles, New York and Sydney, Australia with planned expansion into Europe and India slated for Q1 of 2014.

Stores interested in working with Swarm can sign up for a product demo at Swarm-mobile.com

By press release