Durham-based Yaarlo launched a beta product in July that rapidly gained more than 5,000 users. The expansion happened so quickly that the company pulled their product from app stores in order to build the feature base and infrastructure to deal with the users of the app.
The company promises to pay consumers for scanning their receipts. Any receipt from any retail or online store where a consumer made a purchase.
The average person makes 10-14 transactions per week, said Ashley Freeman, a spokesperson for the company. The app, which is free to use for consumers, scans receipts and logs them into an account. The company then processes and verifies those receipts, providing compensation based on your total sales and your frequency of use.
The company started processing 100 receipts per day. When they pulled the app off the App Store, they saw an increase in filed receipts, said Freeman, and are now processing more than 2,500 every day. All of this growth and expansion is occurring with a set–and limited–number of users.
The company drives its own revenue through charging companies (think: Macy’s) a monthly subscription fee of $29. In return, Yaarlo provides an engagement channel for brands to understand the customer base that is leveraging the app and to offer loyalty rewards to customers that return. Users are free to write reviews, comment on the customer service of the store, and recommend to friends. Companies will also have the option to opt-in to additional advertising opportunities, said Freeman, which could drive additional revenue to the startup.
The application is set to be re-released next week on the Google Play Store and in early December on the Apple Store, which is just in time for the holiday shopping season, said the company.
The company plans to keep headquarters in Durham, anticipating a ramp up in early 2016 as growth occurs.
