BizRadio caught up with Christer Hansen Eriksen, co-founder of PAM – hybridshopping.com – he shares their journey in the digital world and talks us through their global market innovation that will connect the shopper directly to shops and the impact this will have our the retail sector globally.
Christer Hansen Eriksen in conversation with BizRadio’s Grant Jansen
Podcast | Click HERE to listen
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About PAM and Hybrid Shopping
When we are in the need of a product, 99% of the time we’re not near an offline shop. But we are, however, near a smartphone or a laptop. The Internet is a great place for inspiration, search and discovery.
The catch is that the products we discover online are from online stores. We have bought our shares of products online and we tend to buy all our tech and media products online because it’s cheaper and we have more choices. When it comes to wearables and furniture we always prefer to shop offline because we want to feel the
product, try the product and be able to ask questions. In addition it’s easy to pay and we can take the product with us.
There are obvious advantages to offline shopping but unfortunately people are guided towards online purchase because that is where they start their shopping process. PAM enables offline shops to have an online presence for inspiration, search and discovery. We call this Hybrid Shopping.
The great thing about PAM is that when people say what they like and dislike we are able to show them products from shops in their city that they didn’t even know existed. This is something we experienced first hand when we started out in our city. There are in fact a lot of cool and interesting shops around that carry the same products we find online. It’s just that we, in our digitalized world, weren’t aware of them.
The social implication of PAM
If people continue to shop offline, millions of jobs are secure. We would hate to see yet another shop having to close down due to increased online shopping.
How we came up with the idea
While doing a project for malls we discovered that offline shops aren’t getting the full potential of an online presence. Most shops have a online presence, often through Facebook and Instagram. This is really positive, and it shows us that the shops are seeking solutions. The challenge is that neither Facebook nor Instagram is made specifically for shops. The shops therefore adapt to the media, instead of having the media accustomed to their specific needs.
For instance, with Facebook and Instagram you won’t get introduced to shops you didn’t know existed, let alone might like. Another problem can be that a shop is spamming you on Facebook with too many posts. You aren’t able filter it, it’s all or nothing.
The people behind
We are three founders; one educated, one dropout and one self-taught. We also have a highly skilled development team.
We are located in a city where the startup community is close to non-existent (Bergen), and in a country where investors choose to put their money into the fishing- or the oil & gas industry (Norway). The odds are definitely against us.
Besides hiking steep mountains, skiing to work and catching fish with our bare hands like all Norwegian do, we have one thing in common; our obsession with quality. True craftsmanship and customer service is something that fascinates us in this day and age. One might say we have an opinion or two about mass production and cheap products. This reflects on what we are creating, and how we choose to do things. When people start using PAM they’ll soon notice that we are quality and not price focused. We are not another coupon or price comparison app.
How we got started
Fortunately, there are people in Norway who arrange events like Startup Weekend. Some of us met there, and some of us met through a local incubator.
Financing
We’re self financed and bootstrapped at the moment, not because we want to but because we have to. Getting investments in Norway is hard, and the amounts raised are usually quite low. Finding overseas investors is not an easy task, but we will begin shortly unless they find us first.
It’s great if an investor has expertise within our market, but we can also be self- sustained if needed. It’s more important for us that the investor understands what we want to achieve and invests in the team and idea, not just the financial outcome.
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