Startup interview: TAGR Co-founder Timothy James

Timothy James gives RTIH the lowdown on TAGR, which recently announced a $1.15 million seed round. The Australian firm’s scan and pay platform enables retailers to offer mobile checkout to their customers within a 48-hour period, with integration to their PoS system.

RTIH: Tell us about RTIH.

TJ: TAGR is all about putting the power of shopping back in the hands of customers. Allowing customers to shop on their own terms, and in their own time.

For merchants, it's about creating a mobile enabled workforce. Distributing the checkout throughout the store and freeing up staff time to focus on what really matters; selling and service.

By digitising the in-store shopping process, we've been able to further close the gap between physical and digital. Delivering never before seen insights and analytics that drive critical business decisions for retailers, and introduce a new and exciting payment experience for shoppers.

Our mobile checkout technology requires no app download, no user sign up and there are no nasty form fields.

It's super simple shopping – allowing customers to walk in-store scan barcodes, pay on their phone using a variety of payment methods and go about their day. Deliberately designed to checkout in as little as 10 seconds, with an award winning user experience. 

What was the inspiration behind setting the company up?

TJ: TAGR was born out of pure impatience. The pandemic was a driving factor, however not the only one.

Years of built-up frustrations from poor staff service, queuing, lousy retail operations, and a sub-par in-store shopping experience. Validated by hundreds and thousands of fed-up shoppers.

Given the state of retail, we knew the industry was due for a shake-up. E-commerce and payments (enter Afterpay) has had plenty of innovation in the last few years, however, in-store retail shopping has remained relevantly stagnant since the 90s.

Sure, select retailers are adopting innovations such as endless aisle, comprehensive CDPs, and enhanced Point of Sale systems, but the industry is yet to receive widespread innovation that rolls onto the customer.

TAGR was an answer to the industry's cry for help while expectations for greater customer experience and flexible payment options are on the rise.  

While greater innovations such as Amazon Go and Just Walk Out technology are being rolled out among the EU and US, the majority market do not have the capital and/or resources available to implement such technology in the short term.

TAGR is a response to bridge the gap between what is now, and what will be, with feasible means.

RTIH: What has been the industry reaction thus far?

TJ: From a customer's perspective, the reaction has been excellent.

The modern shopper craves differential experiences and rates our technology highly with exceptional feedback coming through daily – It's been how we have been able to craft an award-winning user experience.

On the other hand, we have retailers, which have been more difficult to persuade. We have specific retail profiles in which TAGR is quickly and easily adopted and other profiles which are quick to reject.

There is an element of education involved in bringing such technology to the wider market, and we're pioneering that process through the customer's voice.

We have skipped no detail when it comes to customer experience and it's reflected in the evangelist community we have been building. We will continue to put the customer first and drive change in the industry through the most important voice; the shopper.

RTIH: What has been your biggest challenge/setback?

TJ: There are a number of challenges that face any startup regardless of industry, and we're definitely not absent of these.

Though that is the nature of the beast. In regards to our biggest setback, it would have to be building the first version off-shore and all the challenges that come along with it.

At the time, it was the right decision due to capital constraints and the stage of the business, however as we have grown at an increasingly fast pace, it has been difficult to maintain and build upon the foundations on which the platform was built.

This in turn has created time constraints and significant setbacks for our growth. We have been forced to juggle upgrades to our platform, future-proofing the infrastructure and merchant's demand for the product.

RTIH: What is the biggest issue facing the omnichannel retail space right now?

TJ: Systems and technology, no doubt. Many retailers still operate on-premise technology for their PoS, ERP, and customer management systems.

Such systems aren't cloud or API friendly, meaning undertaking an omnichannel transformation project means system migrations or significant custom development. Both of which are timely and costly, often de-prioritised for immediate revenue generating projects.

Enterprise retailers are among the most affected, though also lead market trends for mid-market and small businesses, so the industry is slow to respond.

RTIH: What can we expect to see from you over the next 12 months?

TJ: During our 12-month growth and expansion phase, our aim is to break into new markets including the US and UK.

Continuing to build our infrastructure to support merchants on their transformation journey and make it 'easy' to adopt innovations like mobile self-checkout.

Our infrastructure expansion plans include building more system integrations to support more merchants in current and expanding markets.

You can expect to see us in a number of countries, with a focus on mid-market and enterprise to drive widespread industry adoption.