A GoPro costs the same for everyone? Wrong. Having a MasterCard might easily save a shopper additional 50 dollars on the best price. Because with many big online-shops like Lazada, that MasterCard allows the shopper to use special coupon codes for an extra discount.
“In the last 6 months, we have slowly seen the death of the one big “blockbuster deal” for everyone.”, explains Dealsheep co-founder David Appold. “More and more, the best deals and promotions are restricted: You can only get them if you fulfill certain conditions.” Needing a master card is just one possibility; extra savings might also hinge on whether you have phone provider A rather than phone provider B, an account with a specific bank, or having installed payment apps like LINE Pay on your phone.
Online shopping used to be so simple: Price comparison found best deal for everyone.
The downside: Finding the best deal has become a lot more complex. “Instead of just comparing the prices at different shops, shoppers now need to take into account which promotions and coupon codes they can and cannot use.”, said Pomme Upaiboon, co-founder and head deal hunter at dealsheep.com.
But people are unique and so is the “best deal”: It might look different from one person to the next.
The startup’s solution: Help users figure out which deals are available to them personally. “The best and cheapest deal does not help you, if you do not actually have meet the conditions for buying it.”, added Ms. Upaiboon. “So we figured we should give our users an easy way to see which deals work for them.”
“For the user it is actually quite simple.”, explained Mr. Appold. “They set up what we call their ‘privilege portfolio” on our platform: The credit cards, bank accounts, and phone providers they have. That takes around 30 seconds.
From then on, we do the rest and know exactly which deal works for the user and can tell him or her which discount coupon code and shop is the cheapest for the product they want. Of course, we do not need their actual credit card numbers and other personal information. All we need to know is whether they have that MasterCard or dtac phone or not, because that is what determines which coupon codes work for them.”
Keeping track of all relevant coupon codes and their conditions can be overwhelming.
The startup first premiered the new feature during the Mobile Challenge Asia Pacific (MCAP) held on Hawaii, USA, where the team represented Thailand. Since then the team has refined the feature which appears to be new-to-the-world and has so far not even been attempted by more mature players in the deal hunting and coupon code space in the US and elsewhere. Dealsheep plans to go live with the deal personalization within May.