Shooger gets $5M for mobile social commerce

The company aims to put the "social" back into social commerce

When Groupon and LivingSocial went mobile and instant, it seemed unlikely that any of the copycats would be able to follow them.  But one new startup has found an interesting way of taking local deals mobile.  Shooger, a Miami-based company that has developed a mobile community for local deals, announced Thursday that it has secured $5 million in its first outside round of funding from Hudson Capital Group (HCG).

Before anyone starts crying “copycat,” a quick glance at the platform reveals that Shooger actually meets a lot of key needs in the local business community that most daily deals—including Groupon and LivingSocial—don’t.  Specifically, Shooger is looking to put the “social” into social commerce.

To put the platform into context, most daily deal sites act as marketing/advertising channels for local businesses.  You, the merchant, contact Groupon or LivingSocial or any of the thousands of clones, you create your deal (50% off all Shnitz pies), the daily deal site publishes your deal, and you get a swarm of customers, hoping that some, if not most, of those customers will return.  Unfortunately, for most restauranteurs and certain other establishments, this is rarely the case, since the customers who frequent the daily deal sites are people looking for a deal—not people looking for good Shnitz pies (I’ve heard they’re amazing, though).

Shooger’s approach to local deals throws a unique twist on the traditional daily deal model by making its platform unequivocally social.  Deals are not only submitted by merchants, but crowdsourced as well.  Users can submit tips indicating a great deal at a local hair salon or shoe store, and they can add more texture to the deal by reviewing the food or service, as well as suggesting who to go to.  For example, you might get an awesome haircut at Snooty’s salon and spa, but you really liked your specific stylist, Marcy, so you submit a deal and indicate that Marcy is the stylist to go to.

Thus, deals aren’t just being sourced and vetted by the daily deal company; they’re being sourced and reviewed by other local consumers. 

“Unlike daily deal sites that do not help to build either customer loyalty or the merchant’s long term revenues, Shooger is focused on building real, lasting engagement between local shoppers and merchants, through the creative use of crowd-sourced content and loyalty focused deals,” said HCG President Steve Hudson, in a statement.

The only thing that Shooger lacks at this time: reach.  There are no deals within 100 miles of my homestead.

The Shooger team also happens to have an interesting back-story.  Three of the co-founders, Alex Stancioff, Donick Cary, and Milen Mishkovsky, co-founded SugarShack Animation, which created the animated series “Lil’ Bush,” which was later picked up by Comedy Central.  And Donick Cary is an Emmy-winning writer who has written for shows like “Late Night with David Letterman,” “The Simpsons,” and “Bored to Death.”

The free Shooger app is available for iPhone, with Android and Blackberry apps coming soon.