mySupermarket was an independent shopping and

comparison shopping website A comparison shopping website, sometimes called a price comparison website, price analysis tool, comparison shopping agent, shopbot, aggregator or comparison shopping engine, is a vertical search engine that shoppers use to filter and compare produ ...

for groceries in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It retrieved price information from multiple online retailers, so that customers could compare their prices. On 27 February 2020 Gilad Simhony (CEO of mySupermarket) announced it would be closing on 1 March 2020. His statement read: "After 14 years of service to UK shoppers, the mySupermarket website and mobile application will be taken down from March 1st, 2020 as we shift our activity toward other business areas. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the tens of millions of you who have used our services over the years and who have contributed to its amazing success. It has been our pleasure and privilege to serve you and to share this journey with you."

History

mySupermarket.co.uk launched as a UK-based supermarket

shopping Shopping is an activity in which a customer browses the available goods or services presented by one or more retailers with the potential intent to purchase a suitable selection of them. A Retail#Shopper profiles, typology of shopper types ha ...

and

price comparison Pricing is the process whereby a business sets the price at which it will sell its products and services, and may be part of the business's marketing plan. In setting prices, the business will take into account the price at which it could acqui ...

site in October 2006, using data on four of the main supermarkets

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of York ...

and

Ocado Ocado Group is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It owns a 50% share of Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer Marks & Spencer) and licenses its grocery fulfilment technology to global ...

.Jill Papworth (21 October 2006
"Cheaper shopping? Now it's in the bag"
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 25 November 2016. In June 2013, the company launched a mySupermarket.com for the United States market.Comparison Site mySupermarket Launches U.S. Megastore
TechCrunch.com (10 June 2013). Retrieved 15 June 2013. In July 2013, the company launched a

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

that could be used both online and in-store. In November 2014, "Insights" was launched, a real-time dashboard to track product sales and market share across UK supermarkets. The tool allowed marketers to track performance and make changes daily to their campaigns, rather than waiting for post-season analysis. In June 2015, the company launched mySupermarket SHOPS, an online shop offering wares from more than 100 local and independent UK retailers. On 27 February 2020 the company announced on social media and by email to their users, that from 1 March the website and app would close.

Funding

mySupermarket Limited was a private company, owned by a group of investors and mySupermarket employees. In May 2007, mySupermarket.co.uk received a £3 million investment from venture capitalist firms,

Greylock Partners Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as wel ...

and

Pitango Pitango Venture Capital, established in 1993, is Israel's largest venture capital fund with over $1.8 billion under management. Pitango is focused on seed, expansion and late stage companies in core technologies, consumer, and Life Sciences. The ...

. These funds were earmarked for structured marketing of the site to increase its regular users. In April 2012, mySupermarket.co.uk received an investment of $10 million from British advertising and public relations company WPP and existing investors.

Business model

The site analysed products in a shopper's trolley and suggests swapping some of the items for cheaper substitutes or alternative sizes that offer better value. mySupermarket had multiple stores on the site with pricing taken directly from retailers' websites.Sharon Franke (21 June 2013
"A New Website Can Save You Money on Groceries"
''Good Housekeeping''. Retrieved 25 November 2016. In 2012, mySupermarket launched a desktop app that can automatically compare the price of users' baskets whenever they shop online. The app can run on the background of laptops, PCs and Macs, automatically recognising the URLs of users' frequently visited online supermarkets.

Reception

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' described the site in 2006 as "pretty time consuming" to set up. In 2013 ''

Good Housekeeping ''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good House ...

'' magazine described the site as easy to use, with better savings achieved when spending over $75.00 to avoid shipping charges.

References

External links

* (United Kingdom) *{{Official website, http://www.mysupermarket.com (United States) Online retailers of the United Kingdom Comparison shopping websites Merchant services Retail companies established in 2006 Internet properties established in 2006 British brands