Back again with a new chapter in the Fidely journey.
This time it's a bit less about code and a bit more about strategy, market research, and preparation for the next phase.
Market Research: not as simple as it sounds
With very limited time (as usual), I’ve finally carved out some evenings to work on a proper market analysis for Fidely — with special focus on Italy and my initial target area: Liguria 🇮🇹.
Instead of just relying on random Google searches, I’ve tried to build something a bit more structured and robust:
✅ Searched for reliable sources (official reports, studies, government data)
✅ Used Perplexity AI and OpenAI Deep Research to find resources I hadn't initially discovered
✅ Processed the data inside Google NotebookLM to organize, analyze and double-check sources to minimize hallucinations and mistakes
The goal?
👉 Collect solid, validated data that I can use for future marketing material, landing pages, and potentially to test actual ads and demand.
🎯 Some quick takeaways
The Italian loyalty market is growing fast: estimated €3.5 billion in 2023, with 11–12% annual growth
Around 1 million micro & small businesses in Italy could be potential Fidely clients: shops, restaurants, salons, bars, etc.
In Liguria specifically (my initial focus), there are roughly 10,000–15,000 micro B2C businesses with good adoption potential.
Despite these numbers, the digitalization level is still very low: only ~46% of Ligurian SMEs have basic digital skills
Consumers are fully mobile-first:
WhatsApp usage: 89% of Italians
Mobile payments are exploding: +53% YoY in 2024
Digital loyalty apps (Stocard, Klarna, Apple Wallet) are now mainstream.
💡 Why Fidely might fit here
Many businesses still rely on manual loyalty cards or very fragmented tools.
Existing loyalty platforms often feel too complex, too expensive, or too generic for very small shops.
There's room for a "lightweight, easy-to-use, hyperlocal" SaaS focused on helping micro-businesses go digital — without scaring them with CRM jargon, big data dashboards or enterprise software.
One of my favorite stats from this research:
"Acquiring a new customer costs 5 to 25 times more than retaining an existing one."
(Harvard Business Review)
Exactly why loyalty programs can make a huge difference for small local businesses — and exactly why Fidely exists.
The First Landing Page Mockup
With the research done, I started designing the first version of the landing page.
My direct clients are the shop owners, so the landing is fully targeted at them.
I'm not a designer, but I tried to keep it minimal, focused, and clear about:
The pain points (low return customers, high acquisition costs)
The solution (easy digital loyalty tools)
The local focus (Liguria first!)
Here’s a preview of the mockup:
🎯 Landing Page Tech Stack
Unlike the main Fidely app, the landing page will be its own separate project for better flexibility:
In the next days/weeks, I’ll start actually building the landing and running the first real-world market tests.
What's Next?
🚀 Build & deploy the landing page
📊 Start testing Italian ads to validate real demand
🤝 Prepare early onboarding for local shop owners
💻 Resume app development with:
That's it for now!
Slow evenings, but steady progress.
Stay loyal 😄
