Royal Mail buys stake in Mallzee personal shopping app

Royal Mail has bought a stake in Mallzee, the “personal shopping” app which featured on the BBC TV programme Dragon’s Den. Mallzee brings together more than two million fashion items from over 100 retailers. Shoppers use the app to browse, ‘favourite’ and purchase items.

In a statement issued this morning (22 July), Royal Mail said its investment in Mallzee “helps align the business with the rapid growth in consumer purchases made from mobile devices”. The company identifies this as a significant growth area, as 37% of UK online shoppers used a mobile device to make an ecommerce purchase in the last three months, according to Royal Mail’s own Delivery Matters 2015 report.

Royal Mail Group is acquiring newly issued shares as part of a £2.5 million fundraising by Mallzee. Existing investors, including the Scottish Investment Bank, Par Equity and other private angel investors, are also participating in this fundraising. As part of the transaction a Royal Mail representative will have a seat on Mallzee’s board of directors.

Nick Landon, Managing Director of Royal Mail Parcels, commented: “I’m delighted to announce our investment in Mallzee. We think we can rapidly add significant value to the Mallzee business by introducing their solution to a wider audience. While the entrepreneurial and cutting edge mobile capabilities‎ that Mallzee have developed will complement our existing distribution services.”

Royal Mail added that the investment in Mallzee together with the February acquisition of Storefeeder (the e-commerce technology specialist which provides order management, stock control, smart warehousing and courier integration for web merchants) demonstrated its “continued focus on digital innovation”.