Munich, 08 January 2021 – The Global Savings Group (GSG), Europe’s leading shopping rewards company, and Shoop Germany GmbH (Shoop), operator of Germany’s #1 cashback platform shoop.de, have reached an agreement under which the GSG will acquire Shoop Germany GmbH.
“The deal strengthens GSG’s position as European market leader, building the largest global digital rewards, savings, and shopping content platform,” says Gerhard Trautmann, CEO of the GSG. “Following the acquisition of the leading French Cashback Company iGraal in March 2020, GSG’s primary goal is to empower consumers globally in making smarter shopping decisions through our comprehensive portfolio of consumer engagement platforms and solutions.”
Shoop will now join forces with GSG to continue growing the strongest digital cashback community in Germany. Founded in 2010, Shoop is a Berlin-based loyalty platform that offers customers cash rewards with its network of more than 2,000 online merchants and top-tier brands.
According to a 2020 study by the German Institute for Service Quality, the website is the #1 cashback platform in Germany with the highest customer satisfaction rates. Since 2010, the platform’s customers have earned over €100 million in cashback with Shoop. “Bringing the scale of GSG to Shoop will give us the opportunity to establish Cashback rewards in Germany’s mass market. Looking across Europe, Germany is still a comparable underserved market when it comes to online cashback rewards. By applying best practices across European markets and products, we will be able to make cashback a part of every user journey,” adds Veit Mürz, CEO at Shoop.
The acquisition aligns GSG and Shoop’s shared vision to create rewarding moments for people and empower them to make the best shopping decisions in a smart and enjoyable way. Combining Shoop’s loyal customer base with GSG’s extensive network of the largest advertisers, brands, and publishers will bolster its future growth and reinforce the position as the European leader in the digital rewards and savings information industry.
“After the successful acquisition of iGraal in March 2020 and with the recent acquisition of Shoop, GSG has now also become the clear continental European leader in the growing shopping rewards space. I’m excited to continue working with the team on their journey as GSG is consolidating and transforming this industry in Europe that is undergoing a lot of change also in the US, as seen by the acquisition of players such as Honey through Paypal. I’m convinced that GSG is in a prime position of building a truly unique digital European Champion in this space” says David Kuczek, General Partner at HV Capital.
GSG History
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Munich, Global Savings Group has expanded its reward-based solutions and services across the field of online shopping in the digital world. After its inception, the company immediately commenced a global internationalization approach. GSG’s growth accelerated between 2013 and 2018 with a remarkable pace of scaling up to over 20 markets, including the UK (2016) and the US market (2018). During this period, the company secured and strengthened many business partnerships with leading global brands (Asos, Booking.com, Nike) and well-known publishers (CNN, Business Insider, MailOnline, Burda, or Le Monde).
With a global perspective on commerce and a deep understanding of local markets, GSG has a rich history of successful acquisitions. In 2015, the first strategic acquisition supported the European market expansion by acquiring the Dutch market leader “Imbull,” renowned for its expertise in the world of online couponing. In 2018 Global Savings Group acquired London-based startup Pouch, the UK’s no.1 money-saving browser extension. However, it did not stop expanding its product portfolio and in early 2020 it acquired French cashback company iGraal, building the foundation for the Shoop deal announced today.
GSG Today
Strategic acquisitions, trusted partnerships, and tech-powered consumer-centric platforms now allow GSG to provide smart shopping solutions to customers worldwide. A team of 550+ tech, marketing, account management, and content specialists operates over 50 portals in 20+ markets from eight offices, with a focus on the European markets.
In the last three years, the GSG portals have successfully supported shoppers by facilitating over 75 million purchase decisions. Together with Shoop, the company has around 10 million members with 350 million platform visits every year.
With iGraal, Global Savings Group grows a large and loyal community of cashback shoppers, with some of the memberships dating already 14 years. Adding Shoop into the equation and combining the existing experience of the tailor-made cashback offers of iGraal, GSG now operates the largest communities of cashback shoppers in France and Germany and thus in continental Europe.
While GSG launched iGraal in Spain only in autumn 2020, it plans to enter new European markets in 2021. With a focus on the UK, GSG continues to invest in growing Pouch, whose browser extension enables shoppers to save money and time, eliminating the need for a manual search for discounts and cashback. With close to 1 million customers, GSG operates one of the largest communities of shoppers using extensions for their digital purchases.
Next to operating their own rewards portals, GSG helps the world’s top publishers to provide their readers from all walks of life to shop smarter. Building bridges between news stories and consumer interests to product sales, reviews, and discounts helps readers easily find useful shopping, savings, and lifestyle content, and the publishers to significantly improve their monetization in the digital age.
Global Savings Group empowers millions of people to make better purchase decisions when they shop online. Together with Shoop, it is looking forward to an exciting 2021, developing the German market further and expanding its cashback model throughout Europe.
