Kiwi expansion from Oz bargain website
By his own admission, Justin Gray loves a good deal. But as he hunted the web, he couldn’t find exactly what he wanted. The Gold Coast-based digital designer was searching for a one-stop shop, which brought together all the bargains from a variety of retailers’ websites. That got him thinking. ‘‘I’m a little bit of a bargain hunter myself and I was surprised nothing like this existed. So I got in touch with retailers and had quite a good response.’’
Gray roped in his father Chris, a software designer, and Bargain Spot was launched in late 2015.
‘‘We’re sort of a family of entrepreneurs,’’ he said about the father-son connection.
Now, plans are afoot to bring Bargain Spot to New Zealand in March.
In Australia, the site has managed to tee up a good line-up of well-known names. More than 120 ‘‘partners’’ have signed on, including Kathmandu, Marks and Spencer, Bloomingdales, Asos and Michael Hill.
They allow Bargain Spot’s software to trawl through some two million products to unearth the most heavily discounted items among their fashion, homewares, toys and sporting goods categories.
‘‘It mjght be a fashion retailer and they’ve got a few sizes left and they just want to clear it out, or it might be they have some really heavy sales going on in particular categories,’’ Gray says.
‘‘But basically what our site does is find those really good buys.’’
Visitors to the site can set an automated price alert which emails them when the price of a desired product falls to a certain level.
The site redirects any purchase orders back to the retailer and makes its money through commission.
The system involves a ‘‘huge amount of data’’ and Gray admits it was ’’a real challenge,’’ taking several months to refine.
Innovative ideas in the retail and auction space are gathering pace. Shopstyle, an Australian site, aggregates fashion from around the world at local prices.
Others, like one-day sale sites, connect with wholesalers or manufacturers.
New Zealand’s Price maker site even lets retailers jostle to offer customers the best price on items they specify.
But Gray believes Bargain Spot has a pretty unique proposition on both sides of the Tasman.
‘‘New Zealand just seems like a good next step. It doesn’t seem like there’s anyone in the market doing what we’re doing.’’.
Some Kiwis already using the Australian website would be redirected back here, he said.