Pointy offers local shops the chance to compete online
by Startacus Admin
Search for any product online, and the first result or two (or three or four or five) is likely to be Amazon. As handy as Amazon can be for shopping, it and other online shopping megastores are proving disastrous for some small, local shops.
Small businesses are closing their doors in record numbers, even after putting all of their products online to try to keep up with the times. At the end of the day, it boils down to one thing: visibility. It doesn’t matter if you have a thousand products online on your beautiful, sleek, user-friendly website if nobody knows about your site and Google doesn’t list it until page 12.
Step forward Dublin-based startup Pointy, who have a simple and elegant solution for many smaller businesses.
The Pointy box is a little device that could fit in your palm and acts as a bridge between your barcode scanner and your cash register. 
When a barcode is scanned, that product is immediately added to your page hosted and maintained by Pointy. You do not need to do anything else, as Pointy will gather product images and details itself, and will point the customer straight to your door. Pointy is designed to be as search engine friendly as possible so that when a potential customer searches for a product, they will be notified of a local shop that stocks it, right up there beside Amazon.
Although something like Amazon can be convenient, many people like to be able to stand in front of a product they are thinking of buying and look at it properly, feel it, try it on, ask questions about it, and so on, and it is just the convenience of only having to click the mouse a few times that prevents us from going out and searching local shops for the product. In short, many of us would opt for supporting a local shop if only we knew about it and knew that we could get what we want from it.
If there were any doubt about how important this product could be, it is easily allayed by the fact that the startup has recently raised $6m in funding, including £4m from the founders and co-founders of huge names such as Microsoft, WordPress, Bebo, TransferWise, and Google Maps and lead by Frontline Ventures.
(Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen of Vulcan Capital, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen, Bebo-co-founder Michael Birch, Transferwise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus).
Although this solution won’t work for some smaller retailers who have no need for a barcode scanner, or who might stock products that don’t even have barcodes, this small box is a big step towards helping to bring shoppers back to brick and mortar shops.
Hi-5's to Pointy co-founders Mark Cummins and Charles Bibby and we can only see good things for this startup who's business growth is surely only pointing upwards...
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
The inaugural LINEUP tech event, happening in Derry, NI has announced key speakers, sponsors and themes for its 5th March event.
Take advantage of today’s digitised world! Here are 4 reasons digital marketing could work for you and your business.
Research shows that the majority of staff prefer benefits to high monetary compensation. Here are some ideas on how to increase talent retention...
Innovative project launched by UK Proptech startup to reduce workers' commuting and in turn help alleviate pollution and congestion
Startup funding is never easy, however here are a few of the options that can help you fund your startup without going broke in the process
The future and success of Britain’s high streets has been long debated. So, what are the tech trends that could help impact the Highstreet in 2020?
Innovative startups are currently being sought by BMW Group Financial Services UK which has just launched the third instalment of its Innovation Lab
Starting a business can be a lot of hard work, so here's a few ways to avoid burnout and find a healthy work life balance.
The child health app on a mission to become the first nationwide digital redbook, just got a step closer to making their mission a reality...
The Cambridge-based startup that has created an empowering tool to drive the next wave of biological innovation
Published on: 1st October 2017
.png)
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- Lineup 2020 announces key speakers, sponsors and themes 27th Jan 2020 The inaugural LINEUP tech event, happening in Derry, NI has announced key speakers, sponsors and themes for its 5th March event.
- Ideation NI Thon at NI Science Festival sets out to solve global issues 17th Jan 2020 At one-day event Ideation NI Thon, students will get the chance to solve global and local sustainability, environmental, city and health problems.
- NI startup ESTHER takes flight to New York 16th Jan 2020 NI startup ESTHER, a peer-2-peer giving platform allowing charitable donors to give money directly to people living in poverty, head to New York for a 4-day fact finding mission.
- 2019 stats show that the gender pay gap continues 14th Jan 2020 Recent research by Starling bank shows that in 2019, women earned up to £12,319 less per year than their male colleagues of the same age and within the same industry
