Sympatico.ca has launched into the world of deal-hunting with a new vertical, Flyer of the Week, powered by Toronto-based retail technology startup Wishabi.

The online aggregator of flyers, taken from merchants such as Rona, Sears, Staples and Toys “R” Us, sits on the Sympatico.ca platform.

Ben Kelly, associate director of business development, Sympatico.ca tells MiC the partnership was made because Wishabi is able to provide deeper engagement than the traditional digitalized flyer stack in its social media integration. He adds that the portability and social media features of the weekly flyer are likely to attract an audience of adults age 18 to 35.

“We didn’t have a clear strategy or partner in the [online retail] space for a little while,” he adds. “We felt that it was a gap that we wanted to close in the right way.”

“What this does is it rounds out our current offering with Canadian content that leverages state of the art technology to save time and money in terms of the user experience,” he says of the site navigation that allows users to search through product categories and, with select merchants, redirect the visitor to the retailer’s site to make a purchase.

Kelly explains that this isn’t necessarily a play to expand the brands reach, but to provide its current audience base with a rich, multi-dimensional online retail experience which he believes is currently not offered in the Canadian market.