By James Wells
SYDNEY: Bing Lee has shown interest in a new website rejected by The Good Guys which is designed to offer consumers the opportunity to compare products across different stores.
A press release distributed yesterday by the directors of www.salenearyou.com.au titled ‘Leading retailers sign up with sale near you’ claimed that “major retailers including FoneZone, The Good Guys, Video Ezy and Fantastic Furniture have signed up to join the innovative website that will drive customer traffic to stores”.
Based on similar sites overseas, www.salenearyou.com.au, is designed to provide consumers with the location of various retail stores within close proximity to their homes as well as the identity and prices of products that are currently catalogued by that retailer.
SaleNearYou is offering retailers a free listing for all store locations nationally and two months worth of free-targeted advertising if they sign up before 8 October. The website plans to launch on 23 October.
In its press release, SaleNearYou quoted the proprietor of The Good Guys store at Chatswood in Sydney – David Wenden.
“With no cost, no administration and the potential of hundreds of new customers walking into your stores, why wouldn’t you say yes?,” the press release stated.
When Current.com.au contacted SaleNearYou CEO, Nima Yassini, yesterday he claimed that The Good Guys had already ended their involvement with the website and that Bing Lee had come on board.
At this stage, the deal with Bing Lee has not progressed further than an initial conversation with company director, Lionel Lee.
Yassini said his site is designed to create traffic to retail stores.
“We are striking a chord with retailers, who are all focused on driving shoppers to their stores. It’s about giving shoppers an experience they’ll remember and from there, building a quality relationship based the knowledge that there is a sale near them with retailers they are affiliated with”.
Yassini said his website is designed to complement retailers’ current marketing activities with catalogue and advertising campaigns. He claims that recent research shows the majority of online shoppers tend to be early adopters in a higher income bracket and are mainly attracted by the convenience factor.
Yassini argues that his service is more convenient than price comparisons using catalogues which are inserted inside Sunday newspapers or walking between stores within a shopping centre asking for a better price.
“Let’s say that you are buying a flat screen television and you have done the research and the Hitachi 106cm is the one for you. You would then come on to the saleforyou website, identify where you live, press search and the website shows a map where the retailers are that stock that product and the price.
“At the end of the day, it is not always about price. Someone is not going to drive to Chatswood from Bondi to save $100. They might as well buy it near where they live.”
Yassini said he plans to spend more than $500,000 on the consumer launch and ongoing marketing activity over the next six months to support the new consumer and retail service.
The former advertising executive, who has worked in the online industry for 10 years including within search engine optimisation, said he is recruiting retailers to the service through telemarketing at this stage. According to Yassini, the next stage of marketing will include online advertising and ultimately he would like to advertise his website using bus sides.