Dive Brief:

• Startup bulk-shopping app Boxed announced Tuesday that it raised $6.5 million in new funding, adding to its $1.1 million in seed funding. 

• Boxed has been steadily rising in popularity on the App Store charts. The company says it has grown 100% month-over-month, and the app has enabled hundreds of thousands of purchases, although it won’t reveal specifics.

• Meanwhile, Groupon Basics has launched a web-based bulk-purchasing site that requires no annual membership, another challenge to wholesale clubs.

Dive Insight:

Younger consumers, who live in urban areas in higher numbers and don’t own as many houses or cars as their older counterparts, are less likely to shop at suburban-based wholesale clubs like Costco and Sam’s Club. Those clubs charge annual membership fees of $55 and $45.

While these clubs are seeing sales and growth sink, they seem to be behind in devising strategies for mobile and e-commerce that could help attract these younger and more digital-savvy shoppers. That makes way for efforts like these by Boxed and Groupon Basics.