Dropit raises $25 million to digitize physical stores and unify inventory

Dropit, a retail technology platform that bridges the digital divide by aggregating retailers’ online and in-store inventory, has raised $25 million in a Series C funding round.

Founded in 2014, London-based Dropit counts retail brands such as L’Occitane, Abercrombie & Fitch and Estee Lauder as clients as well as malls. At its core, Dropit is about allowing brands to sell their inventory in an online store, essentially turning brick-and-mortar stores into something akin to a local distribution center—customers buy their products digitally, with the advent of “smart” technology. source” from Drop the closest physical location to the customer where the goods are located and ship accordingly.

So, even if a brand or outlet already has online inventory for a particular item, Dropit brings its offline inventory into the mix and connects all the dots together to speed up delivery and reduce the impact of shipping goods from a distance.

Additionally, a major selling advantage for mall retailers is that Dropit can also aggregate a mall’s entire network of brands into a single online marketplace. This is particularly important at a time when foot traffic has yet to fully recover post-pandemic, as it means mall stores can generate sales 24 hours a day, regardless of in-person visits, as well as allowing customers to shop at multiple outlets. at the same time.

Integrated

The core of the Dropit platform is integrations – it can be connected to any point in the sales or delivery chain, which is one of the reasons Dropit founder and CEO Karin Cabili says it’s not in direct competition with any other internal or external retail system, be it Shopify or some other e-commerce platform.

“Dropit set out to solve the macro problem created by the doubling of inventory in the retail industry and the lack of ability to combine a local store presence with last-mile delivery,” Cabili told TechCrunch. “One of our main strengths is the unification of data and systems. In this effort, we have built integrations with many systems, including Shopify, which has done a fantastic job in the e-commerce space, creating a user-friendly platform recommended for small and medium-sized businesses.”

Through integrations with various third-party courier services, Dropit enables brands and malls to offer same-day or next-day delivery, covering both in-store and online transactions, although street pickup is also offered. It also allows retailers to consolidate their deliveries and pickups to reduce split shipments.

“Dropit’s mission is to solve the central problem of effective optimization for the retail industry, taking care not to diminish the level of customer service provided,” Cabili added.

For example, a retailer looking to use Dropit as part of their existing technology stack could deploy Dropit between an ordering system, warehouse, point-of-sale (POS) and e-commerce (eg Shopify) on the one hand. , and cashiers, payments and postage on the other hand. The retailer can decide for themselves what value they want to get out of Dropit, for example, they may simply want the service and the ability to pick up and pack in store and pick up at the curb or deliver by mail.

“Dropit plugs into existing systems to fill gaps without the need to invest additional capital or technology resources,” Cablit explained.

It’s worth noting that in addition to launching a backend for retailers and malls, Dropit also offers a consumer-focused mobile app for shoppers who like to shop in person but don’t want to carry bags around. So they basically search for participating stores via the app, shop as normal, but when they get to the (physical) checkout, they scan the little Dropit QR code at the point of sale and choose where they want their bags delivered.

Dropit consumer application

Expansion

Since its launch six years ago, Dropit has become increasingly popular in Europe and North America. And last year he was hired by Primaris in Canada to launch Primarké, billed as “the world’s best multi-brand mall and mall” – essentially bringing Primaris’ national network of malls into one online entity. This separates Dropit from the likes of Mall of America (MOA) in Bloomington, Minnesota, which created a similar online marketplace but for stores within a single mall.

Dropit previously raised $25 million in two previously undisclosed funding rounds in 2016 and 2018, and with the new $25 million in the bank, the company is well-funded to expand into its existing markets with growth plans especially in the US. where it already has an office in Austin, Texas.

Dropit’s Series C was led by Vault Investments, with participation from Tiga Investments, Axentia, Sugarbee and others, including former Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren, who sits on Dropit’s board of directors.