In November 2013, News Corp Australia launched Local Shoppa — a free location-based smartphone app, featuring special deals by advertisers.

News Corp introduced the app in a geographical footprint serviced by one of its local community newspapers, The Manly Daily. The objective was to test the new mobile product before rolling it out to the other 21 newspaper mastheads in the state. 

How does it work?

Users download the Local Shoppa from the App Store or Google Play Store and see a list of local deals and discounts within 25 kilometers of their phones. Once in the store, shoppers can show the salesperson the app or simply mention Local Shoppa to receive the advertised deal.

The app is hyper-local with a default 25-kilometer ring fence, which can be shortened or lengthened. As users travel around with their phones, ring fences change to the area of the phone’s location. Users can also sort by category or retailer and mark “favourites” to receive push notifications for when a new deal goes live. 

Advertisers use a simple, self-service portal to upload, manage, and change local deals in real time. For example, if a coffee shop owner is having a slow lunch period, the owner can instantly push out a one-hour only offer such as, “Buy one sandwich, get one free.”

Unlike most deal apps that take a percentage of the client’s product or service, Local Shoppa advertisers pay a flat rate of A$220 a month for access to the platform. They can have five deals running at any one time. 

Local Shoppa uses the latest in GPS technology, favourites, and category push notifications. The app and platform are licenced by a third party from which News Corp’s Local Shoppa product and brand has been built. 

The app will continue to roll out nationally to over 130 newspaper sales teams, with the potential to move into territories not currently serviced by News Corp.

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