Online shopping platform Little Birdie launched with the support of the largest ever pre-launch investment for a start-up in Australian history.
Little Birdie is the new ‘homepage’ for online shopping that showcases over 70 million products from Australia’s favourite brands. Designed to eliminate the cumbersome task of trying to compare products across multiple web pages and avoid shoppers becoming overwhelmed looking for the best price in a flooded inbox of newsletters from retailers, Little Birdie allows consumers to find all the latest price drops, sale events and exclusive offers froms brands such as Adore Beauty, Amazon, Lululemon, Nike, Bonds, The Iconic, Adairs, Cotton on, Dan Murphy’s, Lego, Hype and DC in real time, from the convenience of one tab.
Jon Beros, CEO and Co-Founder of Little Birdie, says that the platform’s smart technology curates a personalised shopping experience for every member. “A truly unique feature, and one that we’re really excited about, is the price history graph that shows users which retailers stock the same product, and at what price right now, as well as in the past,” Jon enthuses. “This gives consumers full price transparency to make sure they’re never paying more than they need to.” A ‘Notify Me’ button means the platform’s users receive an alert when the price of a product they’re interested in drops. “This makes sure they’re never missing out on the best price,” Jon explains.
Having only been up and running for a few months, Little Birdie launched with a bang, thanks in part to a $30 million investment Commonwealth Bank of Australia – the largest ever pre-launch investment for a start-up in Australian history – who are working on enhancing the shopping experience for their customers by bringing Little Birdie offers into the CommBank app. The team has also been given real clout by the addition of two senior members in September.
Ex-Uber marketer David Jennings has joined Little Birdie as Chief Marketing Officer, bringing over a decade of experience working for some of the world’s biggest consumer packaged goods and technology companies, including Mondelez International where he led brands including Oreo and Kraft Cheese, and a period as Head of Brand Marketing at Durex for Europe, North America, Russia and Australia. “Dave has an impressive track record of building and growing adoption for brands and products in the consumer packaged goods and tech spaces,” Jon explains. “His understanding of both consumer goods and technology brands will be imperative to helping Little Birdie grow from its start-up phase.”
Excited about his new role, David says, “With online shopping becoming the norm, I’m incredibly excited to play a role in building a discovery platform that provides a birds-eye view of everything happening in shopping.”
And Kogan.com’s former Deputy CFO Joanne Smith has been appointed as Little Birdie’s Chief Financial Officer, having successfully taken a number of organisations from the start-up phase to profitably operating at scale and into high-growth publicly-listed companies. Joanne was an integral part of the team that took Kogan.com through its 2016 IPO and also worked in KPMG’s deal advisory team, advising clients on mergers and acquisitions and corporate transformations. “Joanne’s experience working in finance for eCommerce and technology businesses will be imperative to the successful growth of Little Birdie as she understands how to navigate the challenges and opportunities that present themselves in both industries,” Jon says.
Looking to the future, the team are on a mission to make Little Birdie a daily habit for all Australians. “We don’t want to spoil the surprises just yet, but the platform as it stands right now is just the beginning,” Jon says.
This article first appeared in issue 34 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
