Foodie.fm Launches Personalized Social Shopping Platform for Groceries

PARIS, December 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- New personalized social shopping platform for groceries lets consumers learn more about the food they eat and retailers share more about the food they sell

Digital Foodie, a Finnish startup based in Helsinki, today at Le Web launched Foodie.fm, the world's first personalized social shopping platform for groceries. Foodie.fm is an online community that helps consumers shop smarter and eat healthier. For grocery retailers Foodie.fm is a service that helps them engage more transparently with their customers to build customer loyalty.

"Grocery retail is undergoing a significant behavioral and technological shift towards personalized online services," said Kalle Koutajoki, CEO of Digital Foodie. "Consumers demand better service and information about what's in their food and where it comes from. This shift will change the way we buy food in the future."

At the core of Foodie.fm is a patent pending recommendation server that learns from users' eating and purchasing habits and suggests recipes and groceries that match their taste profile. Foodie's smart tailoring takes also into account users' personalized preferences -- food allergies, intolerances, predilections and budget restrictions. Foodie.fm is linked to retailers' real time assortment giving users easy options to buy all the products seamlessly through the retailer.

Foodie.fm is available in Finland and in UK as beta. In UK the Foodie.fm product assortment is linked to Tesco enabling the community a direct checkout with Tesco.com. In Finland Digital Foodie has created a deep co-operation with S Group, one of the largest retail chains in Scandinavia and leading retailer in Finland with 44% market share.

"Transparency is very important to us. With Foodie.fm, we have opened up a channel for direct customer feedback, recommendations and discussion, while making grocery shopping easier and more fun," said Ilkka Alarotu, Director, Assortments and Pricing, S Group. "Foodie.fm has enabled us to provide social store front to our customers, something that's unique on a global scale."

Foodie's social layer enables users to follow likeminded people giving a new way to find ideas and inspiration for their diets.

"Say that you are on a gluten free diet, it is very helpful to see what recipes others with gluten free diets are having and what breads they are liking," said Koutajoki. "Detailed nutritional information of more than 35,000 products and thousands of recipes along with user ratings provide valuable information when making purchasing decisions."

Foodie.fm is a multiplatform service that is currently available online and as Facebook, iPhone, Android and Nokia applications. Foodie is free for consumers to use and currently has 140,000 unique users in Finland.

About Digital Foodie Ltd.

Foodie.fm is a multi-platform service designed by Digital Foodie. It is a social shopping platform used by major food-retailers and brands. For consumers, Foodie.fm is a free service linked to the real-time product assortment and checkout of a retailer empowering people to consume smarter and eat healthier. The core of the service is formed of highly personalized food and product recommendations that make everyday shopping easy and fun. Foodie.fm is currently available on the web, Facebook, iPhone, Android and Nokia platforms. Digital Foodie is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. Foodie.fm on the web at http://www.foodie.fm

Media contact
Hanna Manninen
ink Communications
+358-40-1780-980
Hanna@theinkstudio.com