Associated buys stake in off-the-shelf site start-up

Associated Newspapers, owner of the Daily Mail, The Mail On Sunday and Evening Standard, has taken a 20 per cent stake in a company offering off-the-shelf e-commerce Websites.

Called Shopcreator, after its main product, the North Yorkshire-based start-up is creating a stir by offering its service for mass-market rather than premium fees. The client pays a one-time service fee of &£999 and then a monthly subscription fee of &£40 upwards, based on the number of products or services featured on the Website.

Associated Newspapers aims to benefit from Shopcreator’s popularity with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to forge an online relationship with its newspaper advertisers.

The plan is to promote Shopcreator extensively in Associated Newspapers’ national and regional titles, and to work with Shopcreator as a partner for consumer offers through Zoom.

Shopcreator managing director Andy Kitchener says his soon-to-be-floated company has been flooded with applications from SMEs.

Mail On Sunday managing director Mike Ironside sees Shopcreator as “a product that’s complementary to our core business and capabilities. We felt a synergy between their target market and our readership.”

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