Last week, we released an update to the site that makes Valpak coupons mappable and searchable. The coolest part of this for me was navigating to the Seattle Restaurants page and dragging the map around and seeing which restaurants had deals in the neighborhood I was browsing. I’ve never paid any attention to the Valpak envelope that shows up in my mailbox but I found myself exploring the categories to see what was available and also to see what deals were available in my neighborhood. I’m excited about this release and for what’s to come in the next few weeks.
I just came across this great post on ProBargainHunter about Modoshi and Dealspl.us. Yan talks about the time needed for community building and the commission vs. the flat fee approach to getting users to submit and scrub deals on the site. There are some great ideas in this post that are especially topical given that we are striving to combine savings and community here at Judy’s Book. Pure community approaches are challenging and the key to incentive systems is to be aware of unintended consequences. People are quick to optimize against whatever model you put in place and if you’re not careful about measuring and adapting your system, you’ll quickly find yourself paying for contributions that don’t create any value. I realize this is sort of a ‘duh’ statement, but you’d be amazed how hard it is to implement.
Amazon allows you to query their site to obtain information on items that are on sale. Unfortunately, this is a pain in the ass for individuals to use because you have to put the percentage discount you’re looking for in the URL parameter:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/?node=172282&pct-off=90-&tag2=epicempire-20
(90% Off Deals in Electronics)
As startups, we need to create value for our users by investing time and energy and doing work for them so they can get to what they are looking for faster. Brand Name Coupons did this by creating a comprehensive page that allows users to run these searches with just one click. It’s not pretty, but its effective and hats off to them for taking the initiative to do it.
We’re striving to do the same thing at Judy’s Book. Our Holiday Shipping and Returns Policy Guide and the After-Christmas Sales Guide are examples of this. If we can continue to deliver value in this way, I believe we will build loyalty.
There’s a catch - delivering value for users means we have to work our asses off. It means paying people to work on Christmas weekend to enter data about offline sales information, it means scrambling to release data the instant it becomes available.
Cutting corners, avoiding getting your hands dirty and generally taking the easy way out is seductive, but it short-changes the people we’re working for. The good news is that if you can stay focused and put in the effort, it’s well worth it.
Our parents were right (damn it) - there are no shortcuts.