Fidely Update #5 — Market Research, Landing Page & Strategy Shaping 🚀

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:

• ✅ Next.js 14

• ✅ TailwindCSS

• ✅ Full static export possible → deployable on a CDN like Cloudflare.

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:

  • Reward redemption flow

  • Customer-facing app interface

  • More detailed analytics for business owners

That's it for now!
Slow evenings, but steady progress.

Stay loyal 😄