Providing a Bargain Finding Service for Non-OzBargainers?

L7hours 44min ago on 07/07/2015 - 16:31

Last weekend I was having lunch with a mate and he told me he was thinking about getting a pressurised wine stopper as he lived alone and took too long to finish a bottle. I remembered seeing a KitchenDirect sale with free shipping on OzB so I sent him a link to a $5 stopper.
After we ate we ended up walking into a Canterbury store and he looked at a few jerseys. The next day I saw Canterbury had an online sale so I linked him to it.

He was very appreciative both times but is the type of person who would never get into trawling a site like this; as are most of my friends and family.

I've always been the guy people ask when they need advice about buying a range of products and that has increased since I found this site. Now I can let them know what the best choice is and let them know how to get it at the best price.

Has anyone thought about creating a service where people can let you know what they want and you let them know when you've found the best deal? Do you think there is a market for that or should I just stick with casually helping friends and family when I can?

General Discussion

Comments

  • pyramid on 07/07/2015 - 16:34

    This people are doing something similar -> http://spendinghacker.com.au/

    • 7hours 44min ago on 07/07/2015 - 17:26

      Terribly built site with the classic "pay for a PDF we will email you and then we will spam you with offers to buy more PDFs" marketing strategy.

      I do like their enthusiasm though.

  • Maki on 07/07/2015 - 16:35
    +1

    I thought about that too, but I don't think there's enough demand for that…

  • ProjectZero on 07/07/2015 - 16:47
    +4

    I dont know if that will work… if they aren't willing to trawl through similar websites such as OzB, why would they go through another website/service? Essentially, they would have to go through a middlemen of some sort, whether that be you or another website/service, before they can find whether there is a deal or not.

    I don't wanna be a prick about it but most of the time I would just tell them to google it… most of the time OzB comes up with the deals currently available for the items anyway.

  • GaelicAU on 07/07/2015 - 17:30
    +4

    I can understand the seed of your idea, but if someone cannot be bothered searching online to compare prices, they are highly unlikely to subscribe to a service and enter alerts for things they intend to buy in the future.

    The easiest way I can think of searching for and comparing prices for everyday products is www.lasoo.com.au. I havent used it for a while though so cannot comment on how good or useful it is.

    EDIT: Searching for Canterbury > http://www.lasoo.com.au/search/canterbury.html
    There is also Google Shopping > https://www.google.com.au/search?q=canterbury&tbm=shop

  • [Deactivated] on 07/07/2015 - 20:03

    For larger value items have you tried Shoprite?
    You may need to be a member of an affiliated organisation to use the free service

  • Randxyz123 on 07/07/2015 - 20:12

    Just sign him up for the daily emails. If he sees something he likes then he can buy it.

  • quop on 10/07/2015 - 13:42

    I have a closed fb group where I post deals/bargains I come across (OzB being one of various sources). Essentially a curated list biased towards stuff I'm interested in, or that I think people I know might be interested in, and specific to the city/region where I and most group members live.

    If friends mention that they're looking for something specific, and I either already know of something, or notice something shortly after, I'll either post the deal and tag them, or just contact them via other means to let them know of the relevant details.

    Have thought about ways of monetising it but it hasn't gone beyond thoughts (and probably won't).

    • 7hours 44min ago on 10/07/2015 - 14:11

      I like it. I have been thinking about doing the same but just for alcohol.

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