Global Blue Launches Global Blue Ventures to Support Its Omnichannel Market Expansion Ambition

  • Global Blue Ventures supports Global Blue’s position as the strategic omnichannel technology and payments partner empowering merchants to improve their performance
  • Global Blue Ventures focuses on investment and/or partnership with third parties that offer best-in-class RetailTech innovations, enabling Global Blue to expand its product offering and bring more value to its retail clients
  • Thanks to Global Blue Ventures, Global Blue has already partnered with a number of leading and fast-growing RetailTech companies, including global returns provider, ZigZag Global, and digital receipt provider, Yocuda

 

Global Blue, today, announced the launch of Global Blue Ventures, a new entity created to identify, invest in and/or partner with third parties that offer market-leading retail technology solutions.

Global Blue Ventures was initiated in 2019, and officially launched in April 2021, to advance Global Blue’s ambition to be a strategic omnichannel technology and payments partner empowering merchants to improve their performance.

Extending Global Blue’s Value Proposal with Innovative Omnichannel Solutions

Global Blue Ventures concentrates on innovative and promising new businesses, with best-in-class companies selected to support brands on their omnichannel path.

The Ventures program will focus on add-on technologies that can easily integrate with retailers’ core systems, allowing them to:

  • Optimise and digitalise their processes across the entire omnichannel customer journey: online, in store and at home
  • Capture customers’ identity and engage with them on a personalised one-to-one basis
  • Collect and cross-reference data to provide advisory services and actionable insights

It will focus its efforts on three key verticals and market needs:

  • eCommerce: how to boost conversion rates and improve return efficiency
  • Store digitalisation: how to digitalise in-store processes and experiences
  • Clienteling 2.0: how to engage digitally one-to-one with consumers

RetailTech market experts James Strabo, previously a founding member and Managing Director at Blackhawk Network and Managing Director at Westfield (OneMarket), and Andrew Carroll, Founder of Yocuda and formerly Director of Corporate Development at Westfield (OneMarket) will lead Global Blue Ventures. Their mission will be to pinpoint latest retail market trends, identify the best-in-class technology players for each vertical, test and collect retailers’ feedback and, where appropriate, drive investments in the retail technology partners that can further accelerate Global Blue’s omnichannel market expansion.

Advancing with Investment in Promising New Verticals

Since its inception, Global Blue Ventures has already enabled Global Blue to join forces with several leading players including:

  • Yocuda: in October 2020, Global Blue acquired a minority stake in Yocuda, a leading digital receipt provider. Yocuda allows retailers to send content-rich, personalised digital receipts to consumers, whilst capturing data that allows for customer insight, management and engagement. Its technology can also be linked to a brand loyalty programmes. Yocuda is partnered with leading companies such as Marks & Spencer and Argos.
  • ZigZag Global: in March 2021, Global Blue announced the acquisition of ZigZag Global, a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology provider. ZigZag replaces the traditional paper-based “label in the box” returns solution with an online portal that enhances the experience for consumers and streamlines the process for retailers across the world. ZigZag is partnered with leading retailers such as Selfridges and Superdry.

As a technology and payment partner for retailers, we are looking at extending our solutions on the full omnichannel journey, for both domestic and international shoppers. The network of RetailTech companies that we have started to create through Global Blue Ventures will enable us to co-create integrated solutions that achieve this goal and ensure we continue to meet our clients’ evolving needs.

Jacques Stern
CEO, Global Blue

We are very pleased to be joining Global Blue and look forward to bringing our vision and expertise to help propel the business further into the RetailTech space. We are confident that the network of RetailTech partners we will build will give Global Blue clients access to the best-in-class solutions and will enable them to stay at the forefront of the latest omnichannel trends.

James Strabo and Andrew Carroll
Founding Partners of Global Blue Ventures

Media Contacts

Virginie Alem – SVP Marketing & Communications
Mail: valem@globalblue.com

Investor Relations Contacts

Frances Gibbons – Head of Investor Relations
Mob: +44 (0)7815 034 212 
Mail: fgibbons@globalblue.com

ABOUT GLOBAL BLUE

Global Blue pioneered the concept of Tax Free Shopping 40 years ago. Through continuous innovation, we have become the leading strategic technology and payments partner, empowering retailers to improve their performance and shoppers to enhance their experience.

Global Blue offers innovative solutions in three different fields:

  • Tax Free Shopping: Helping retailers at over 300,000 points of sale to efficiently manage 35 million Tax Free Shopping transactions a year, thanks to its fully integrated in-house technology platform. Meanwhile, its industry-leading digital Tax Free shopper solutions create a better, more seamless customer experience.
  • Payment services: Providing a full suite of foreign exchange and Payments technology solutions that allow acquirers, hotels, and retailers to offer value-added services and improve the customer experience during 31 million payment transactions a year at 130,000 points of interaction.
  • Complementary RetailTech: Offering new technology solutions to retailers, including digital receipts and eCommerce returns, that can be easily integrated with their core systems and allow them to optimize and digitalize their processes throughout the omni-channel customer journey, both in-store and online.

In addition, our data and advisory services offer a strategic advisory to help retailers identify opportunities for growth, while our shopper experience and engagement solutions provide data-driven solutions to increase footfall, convert footfall to revenue and enhance performance.

For more information, visit http://www.globalblue.com/corporate/

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