Brand-spanking new Aussie start-up Wyngle is getting all up in online group discounting’s face.
In Wyngle founder Sebastian Langton’s words: “Once you drop your price by 50-80 per cent, it becomes very hard to justify the full price again.”
As luck would have it, Langton has the antidote to back the smack talk. Introducing Ratio Shopping (that’s “Patented Ratio Engine Technology” to would-be copycats), where you can purchase anything on Wyngle for one buck, no matter what the price is.
Confused? Here’s how it works. All products for sale through Wyngle are never more than the recommended retail price. However, attached to each item is a ratio that determines how often it will sell for just one dollar, versus how often it’s sold at the advertised price. So if a $100 product has a ratio of 1:3, that means one in every three will go for just $1.
You with us now? Don’t make us get out our pocket calculators…
Is Wyngle the great white hope for Aussie suppliers?
According to Langton, “Wyngle gives Aussies the opportunity to get a great product at a fair market price and try their luck to get it for $1.”
“Who wouldn’t buy a product they had already intended to purchase if the price was fair and there was the chance it would be almost free?”
The inspiration for Wyngle came from Langton’s musings over the growing online discounting culture. He felt that, should online purchasing reach the point where it was purely price-driven, Australian retailers would get their asses handed to them by their China counterparts.
“I wanted to try and solve the problems associated with this online discount culture,” Langton says.
“To me there was a huge gap in the market. [It] needed a new model that benefits both the consumer and the supplier in a more balanced fashion.”
“Deep discounting diminishes the consumer’s perceived value of goods and services.”
Although Langton had spent much of his career, first as a property developer in his native UK, then as a professional sailor, when he spotted the online discounting conundrum about two-and-a-half years ago, he thought he’d take a stab at fixing it.
“Ratio Shopping is designed to protect what [suppliers] have worked hard to create… value and a price point in the market. We believe that what we’re offering is more profitable and more sustainable for the suppliers and they’re beginning to see that.”
“Suppliers can generate strong demand without the need to discount. This allows them to engage with a large active audience without devaluing their products or their brand.“
So what sort of goodies can you get with Wyngle?
You like iPad 2? There’s totally some of those. Been hankering after a Cell Phantom Carbon Flat Bar Road Bike? (Pfff, who hasn’t?) They’ve got them too.
Plus there’s everything in between, from undercrackers (aussieBums, actually) to ghd hair straighteners to mahoosive beanbags.
Some suppliers – the aforementioned aussieBum, for one – have been so taken with the Wyngle model that it’s the only online destination, other than their own sites, where you can purchase their products.
aussieBum founder and CEO Sean Ashby says, “We love the Wyngle concept as it provides us with an exciting way to capture new market and to create additional sales without discounting.”
“Everyone who hears about the concept seems to really like the idea because it’s simple and it overcomes a lot of the current issues,” Langton says.
“The number of visitors and purchases has been growing steadily since we launched and the future is looking promising.”
While Wyngle’s initial focus is on the local market, online discounters in the UK and US had better watch themselves – the Aussie start-up’s got them firmly in its sights.
Two weeks in, how the Wyngle are you?
Did we mention Wyngle launched just weeks ago? Well it did. And Langton says he’s learned for himself that everything those fancy entrepreneur types say in their autobiographies is true.
Crying? Tick. Depression? Sure. Joy? Yes please. Throw in working every hour under the sun and saying sayonara to your social life, and you’re starting to get the picture.
So why do it?
“If you can’t do it, it ends up eating you up inside.”
His advice to would-be entrepreneurs is to suck it up.
“Just keep fighting, no matter how tough it gets mentally or physically. I’m sure you’ve heard this story a million times – late nights, stress, worry, tears etc. Be prepared – it’s all very real.”
“My advice is get some sleep, take a break and come back fighting.”
“Many fighters get knocked down and it’s the ones that get back up that end up winning in the end.”
