Founded in Munich in 2012, Global Savings Group (GSG) is Europe's largest product recommendation, shopping community and rewards company with an international presence in more than 20 markets and over 1,000 employees. The company According to its own information, GSG reaches around two billion website visitors worldwide per year and generates a gross merchandise value (GMV) of approximately €500 million per month. Around 13,000 retailers and brands worldwide rely on GSG's services, including Nike, eBay, Expedia, and Adidas. The company is still led by one of its three founders, Gerhard Trautmann, as CEO.
Our interviewee, Johannes Wirth, has been COO of the GSG Group since summer 2023. His role was newly created last year when the company restructured its internal structures to better integrate different divisions. As an umbrella organization, the GSG Group comprises three business units: "Connect," headed by Wirth as CEO for many years until summer 2023, encompasses the traditional coupon business with brands such as Coupons.com. "Communities" encompasses the activities of deal communities such as MyDealz, and the "Cashback" division is responsible for GSG's cashback programs with, for example, Shoop in Germany.
Twelve years of international growth and M&A activities
Munich Startup: The Global Savings Group will be twelve years old this summer. What have been the biggest milestones on your journey so far?
Johannes Wirth, Global Savings Group: In my view, there are three key factors: First, we grew organically in the first five years after our founding and built our Connect segment, the world's largest digital voucher network. The second major development came with acquisitions. We grew significantly through M&A and, for example, Igraal bought and met with Pepper which gave us a huge boost. Overall, we had almost €500 million in cumulative deal volume on the M&A side.
Our third major milestone was our entry into the US market. We initially spent several years in the coupon segment there, building up a wealth of experience and expertise there. We were also able to successfully collaborate with partners like CNN and Business Insider. Finally, we acquired Coupons.com because we believed we could significantly develop this brand further. And that's worked very well so far.
Munich Startup: How has your solution developed since its founding?
Johannes Wirth: The company was originally founded with a different intention. Dropgifts, as it was called back then, was originally intended to be a social gifting platform. But we quickly realized that wasn't working, so we switched to vouchers. We further developed the business model and quickly expanded internationally through our own brands. We then made the voucher network available as a white-label solution for partners. These include Focus Online and Chip in Germany, the Daily Mail in the UK, and CNN and Business Insider in the US. For many partners, this quickly developed into a significant portion of their revenue.
Global Savings Group sees itself as a scaleup
We've also continually worked to further develop our solution for users. This includes developing intelligent CRM solutions and expanding our offerings, such as gift cards and product reviews. Our goal is always to cover more and more touchpoints in the user purchasing decision.
Munich Startup: How do you classify yourself? Do you still see yourself as a startup?
Johannes Wirth: With our size and age we see we We no longer see ourselves as a startup, but rather as a scale-up. We want to continue growing and are trying to retain as much of the working methods and spirit of a startup as possible. This brings speed and innovation to a company with over 1,000 employees. Of course, we can no longer operate as we would with ten employees; certain processes need to be established, standardized, and professionalized. We maintain the startup spirit through new ideas, projects, and products that we try to set up like a startup. These then get their own budget, and we do everything necessary to ensure that the topic can move forward quickly. And then there is the fact that many employees have been with us from the beginning and have grown into leadership roles. This shapes the culture enormously and helps to maintain the startup spirit.
“We always welcome healthy competition”
Munich Startup: How has your market changed since you were founded?
Johannes Wirth: The market has become highly professionalized and, at the same time, has grown enormously. Affiliate marketing has become an integral part of the marketing mix of many brands and advertisers, which Chinese players in particular are using to tap into new markets. Generally speaking, we naturally see more competition in the market because it's growing. We take a sporting approach to competition because it drives us to constantly develop. Cashback, for example, was still a niche product ten or eleven years ago, but it's now enjoying great popularity, for example in Germany, France, and Spain.
Another important trend is the migration of users from desktop to mobile. Initially, almost all of our traffic came from desktop; today, the majority of our reach is mobile. Adapting to this change and developing the product accordingly was naturally a challenge. Tracking is also not to be neglected. Tracking is important for the industry, as it generates a commission for a successful sale. However, this comes with many regulations from browsers and governments. Good technical solutions are needed to master this.
Finally, we see how e-commerce models are constantly changing and evolving, and new models are emerging, such as food delivery, streaming, or mobility services. This is also changing our own market, because our business is structured horizontally across all e-commerce categories.
Chinese platforms challenge established players
Munich Startup: What options do you see for dealing with the new pressure from Chinese players?
Johannes Wirth: There are now numerous players – some, like Aliexpress, have been around for a while. In the last one to two years, new companies with significant relevance in the consumer sector have emerged. These include Temu, Shein, and Miravia, which is currently only active in Spain. They are pushing into e-commerce in Europe and the US with large marketing budgets and highly innovative business models. As already mentioned, we generally find this kind of thing exciting because it drives everyone else to innovate. And the established players in Europe would be well advised to take a close look at this and develop a good strategy to respond.
For me, it's important to examine the sustainability practices of all players. We need to look at how much more sustainable existing players actually are and how new players are changing consumption patterns. New markets like ultra-fast fashion or kitchen and household gadgets are gaining more attention thanks to new players, as they increase their marketing investments there. This, in turn, encourages consumption. And they do it cleverly and innovatively, offering great discounts and deals that are unlocked via gamification elements. They also offer incredibly low prices because their even leaner supply chains allow them to undercut the established players.
We have to keep all of this in mind. But ultimately, our main goal at GSG is to help consumers save money and make the best purchasing decision. If users are interested in purchasing the new products, we will help them. We don't see ourselves as objective observers. We want to offer a holistic offering while keeping sustainability in mind.
Global Savings Group: From Munich to the world
Munich Startup: What role did the Munich ecosystem play in your journey?
Johannes Wirth: In fact, the Munich ecosystem played a very minor role for us at the beginning. This was mainly because we quickly shifted our focus to international business. Our initial focus was on countries in Southern Europe, South America, and the Nordics. There, we faced less competition, allowing us to grow and consolidate the market quickly. Germany, on the other hand, became a core market for us only a few years after our founding.
But what was very important for us was HV Capital as the most relevant investor based in Munich. This proximity was important to us from the beginning and continues to be so, as it allows us to engage in intensive exchanges. I personally also studied business administration at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), so I feel a certain affinity with the ecosystem. And I think it's fantastic what has developed there since our founding in 2012: successful startups, a professional VC landscape, the role of universities and institutions like UnternehmerTUM, CDTM, and others.
Munich Startup: What milestones are you working towards next?
Johannes Wirth: Internationalization continues to be a major focus for us. We are now active in 24 countries with our voucher network, but only in three with cashback, and in around ten with our deal communities. We see significant potential for expansion there. Furthermore, following the M&A deals of recent years, we still have some internal work to do: We want to integrate the teams and business units more closely and leverage the synergies we see here for users and retailers. And for consumers, we are working on new solutions by more closely interlinking brand and shopping solutions and mapping the entire user journey of the purchase decision even better – ideally at every touchpoint.
