Apptive announces additional funds raised

Apptive, a mobile commerce firm based in Texas, has announced that it has raised over $1 million in funding through recent efforts. The firm offers services to those looking to develop their own mobile commerce applications. A growing number of retailers and online merchants are beginning to focus on the mobile sector in order to take advantage of the swell of consumers that have come to populate this sector in recent years.

Consumers are becoming increasingly mobile

With smartphone and tablet devices becoming more common among consumers, retailers have had to change their engagement methods in order to ensure their continued relevancy. As such, many companies have come to take mobile commerce more seriously. Over the past three years, retailers have been dabbling in various mobile solutions that promise to boost their consumer engagement. Few of these solutions have managed to deliver on this promise, however, encouraging retailers to take matters into their own hands.

Apptive seeks expansion

Many retailers are interested in developing their own mobile commerce platforms. Apptive can assist in this endeavor by providing services that are specifically tailored for such initiatives. The funding that the firm has risen recently will aid in the expansion of its services and assist the firm in establishing new partnerships with merchants operating in the mobile sector.

Partnerships add momentum to Apptive’s allure

Apptive’s Easy App platform officially entered beta testing in the spring of this year. The firm has been seeking out partnerships with companies in order to establish a more formidable presence in the mobile commerce space. Apptive has partnered with Bigcommerce, Colusion, 3dcart, and Shopify and has managed to establish a strong following based on these partnerships. Bigcommerce, for instance, has reported that 70% of its merchants who create an application through Apptive go on to publish the application to their customers, securing a significant financial boost.

These quick response codes can help items to find their way back to their owners.

A startup company called My Lost Property has now been created by the parents of a boy who needed a way to find items that had gone missing, using inexpensive QR codes to make sure that belongings didn’t have to be replaced.

The last straw occurred when the son of the creators – the Sheedy family – lost his school blazer that cost $250.

Spencer Sheedy and his wife Rita recognized that while it is frustrating that their own two kids always had their possessions go missing, their children were far from the only ones who had this happen. It was this realization that encouraged the couple to create My Lost Property. Though the concept is quite simple as it is based on the use of QR codes, it is more innovative than simply using stickers and iron-on labels.

These QR codes are each unique and are registered on a website so that when the item is found it can be returned.

A missing item’s quick response code can be scanned by someone who finds it. They can then enter the location of the item, which will be automatically texted to the parents so that a pick-up can be arranged. The original concept had involved only stickers for the Sheedy kids. However, it didn’t take long before they found themselves creating labels, keyrings, stickers, and other barcodes for friends. Soon, it became evident that they had a business.

Since then, Mr. Sheedy had brought his barcodes and My Lost Property idea to the local schools. He has managed to create a sponsorship arrangement through Schoolzine, which is an online company that produces bulk school newsletters. According to Sheedy, “Schools have been really responsive. They like the simplicity of it, and lost property is such a problem for them.” He explained that he just wants parents to be able to find out about it.

The Sheedy’s knew that they could solve a very expensive problem for many parents and children with the simplicity and ease of QR codes. “When that $250 blazer went missing, we thought we needed to do something more than just the hit-and-miss putting a name on there and hoping it will come back. This just gives you a bit more of a chance of it coming back,” said Mr. Sheedy.