BView

Archive for March, 2009

Are you the most worthy of 99% off?

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Savings, savings, savings. Everyone’s tightening their belt; buying no-name; downloading coupons, and hunting for bargains.  BView wants to be a part of that: we’ve got savings from the big boys and the little guys (or girls). We might even have savings for your neighbourhood… check out your local area here. But enough of that, you’re probably here because you want the daddy of vouchers. I’m offering you 99% off ANYTHING in the world (up to £500). That’s right, anything. But you don’t get this big lovin’ for free, you gots to do a bit o’ work for it!

*The work:

1. You write a blog post telling the world what you’d do with your 99% off.  Make sure you have a link back to www.bview.co.uk.
2. Send an email to competition@bview.com and give us a link to said posting.
3. All entries have to be received by midnight GMT on Saturday, April 25, 2009.
4. I’m going to shortlist my top 10 favourites, and then the lovely attendees of Social Media Camp London will vote on the winner, which will be announced by 8pm Sunday, April 26, 2009 GMT.
5. You can enter as many times as you like (if you have multiple blogs, then go for it!).
6. People from anywhere in the world can enter, but the prize will be awarded in pounds sterling.

So that’s it.  Now it’s time for you to get your creative hats on (I know I’ve been singing, “If I had a million dollars” in my head while writing this)! To get you started, us folk at the BView office have come up with what we’d do with the savings. You’re lucky our boss won’t let us enter, but hopefully they will inspire you to think of some great ideas.  Good luck, and I look forward to reading your entries!

Dan (the developer)

If I had 99% off anything, I imagine I would take a trip down to the picturesque village of Bray. With no wallet to burden me and a crisp £5 note in my freshly ironed shirt pocket, I would walk purposefully into The Fat Duck with my girlfriend and ask for the finest table (Norovirus be damned). After enjoying one of the finest meals in the world, I would personally hand Mr Blumenthal the £5 note and ask him to bill the rest to BView.

Huw (the developer)

I would like to invest £375 in the UK stock market; strategically selecting shares in struggling companies within the financial sector (such banking and insurance based companies).  Following this, I would spend £100 on premium bonds, and squander the remaining £25 on a new jumper (NOTE: I may purchase 2 jumpers, depending on the price per-jumper).

Colin (the product guy)

I’d take my wife away for a week in cornwall. Just a bit of a break from the norm, just a little something to break the monotony of all that child care that has gotten to be a little bit out of control. It would be cool to to be in France but what about a beach that soothes, that reignites romance? A bargain for a fiver.

Simon (the community guy)

With 99% off I’d have to go for a Canon EOS 40D to replace my beaten up and practically ancient 350D. It would be a shame having to replace it if i won (I’ve had it for so long) but something tells me I’d get over it….

Kat (the web designer)

I have a problem: I love goats, especially baby ones, and so I’ve made up a character named safetygoat, who, sporting a fetching red lifejacket, has become my little mascot.  I had this idea that I could make plastic replicas of them, but minimum quantities means it’s expensive (and I’d end up with hundreds, maybe even thousands of the little guys).  So, I’ve been making them on my own by making a silicon mould and pouring polyeurathane and then painting the result.  You can see the adventures of safetygoat here.

They’re pretty cute, but they’re not exactly the most refined looking toy. So, with my £495 (with a fiver of my own cash) I’d like to make proper vinyl safetygoats.   I’d get them properly made in some third world country, and I would get loads of them, so anyone who wanted their very own safetygoat could have one! It would be a dream come true!

We can’t win (unfortunately), so now it’s your turn!

So get out there and write your entries

Tags: 99% off, competition, discounts, free money, Savings, voucher, win bview, win £500
Posted in Announcements, Competitions, Events, offers, Savings | 9 Comments »

BView, Joy and the tale of the inquisitive journalist

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

I received a telephone call last week, asking if I could speak to a journalist about my money saving experiences and BView, they were looking for someone female and articulate with children, a contrast to the single male they would interview to create balance. I stepped up to the challenge, somewhat dubious about my ability to articulate at the end of a busy week, but willing.
The reporter was straight to the point ‘What money saving vouchers have you used recently?’
Tesco , free delivery and some money off an order. My mind stumbled then, surely, somewhere in the midst of my teaching assessment and dropping the kids at nursery I had made some other purchase? eBay, of course, a lovely gothic top imported from China with reduced delivery charges.
‘Great’ enthuses the journo. ‘What else?’

You want more?  All my shopping has been online recently, there must be more. ‘Pizza,‘ I squeaked nervously down the phone, feeling more like this was a test of my financial savvy than a research opportunity. ‘Yes, I took the girls out for pizza and we got a pretty good deal.’ And indeed it was, there were two satisfied kids with faces decorated liberally with pizza and ice cream but I was happy as someone else would do the washing up.
Then the pièce de résistance sprang to the front of my mind. Bicycles. Christmas is a wonderous event in our household, my 3 year old twins are adored by friends and family alike, two golden girls with cheeky smiles and infectious giggles , treated with Dora The Explorer and Diego toys, My Little Pony and Disney Princess but not a single bicycle upon which to inflict their boundless energy.
Argos had a voucher featured on BView, £20 off toys and games ordered online. In the sale was the ideal pink and sparkly bicycle with training wheels and a doll seat and delivery in time for Christmas. Double discounts, sale items and vouchers and two perfectly girly bicycles for the ultimate Christmas gifts. A done deal.

The journalist dutifully took notes, now flooded with my details of financial acumen and my pleasure in saving.
‘And do you think these are genuine savings?’ he asks, a more academic question of opinion amongst the facts.

Now my opinion differs here. Some companies are merely advertising a sale to maintain face with their competitors, reducing tiny amounts of money off the items which just will not sell in order to legitimately put a sale sign in the window. Thereby drawing some extra clientele and making the non selling items appeal to those who cannot resist a bargain, no matter how pointless.
Then there are those who have a sale to make some money, despite the reduction in spending, clearing old stock, renewing interest and cutting their losses on items ordered months ago when the pound still had some economic strength and no sign of weakening.
Finally there are those who boost their prices up and then offer reductions, taking no responsibility for the price increase, using the recession, reduced provision, increased supplier prices and so on as their excuses. Then they offer some minor reduction to give the impression of joining forces with the great British public to bring costs down so we can weather the storm.

I assume the journo is making his notes, curious shorthand scribbles across the stereotypical notepad and I continue.

The end of season sales are ideal examples, the stock is technically useless, any money made is a bonus and the space is required for the next wave. I like end of season sales. I buy my daughters clothing months in advance, making best use of sales to prepare at lower costs. With twins nothing can be passed down to the next sibling, it really is twice the price.
The end of season sale is the norm, clearing out and making at least a scraping of profit and I am happy to take advantage of that, sacrificing only wardrobe space in my efforts to save.
Boots had a record January sale, the day the 70% sale kicked in shelves were stripped bare in a single day. I saw a woman sat on the floor, guarding 8 or 9 large shopping sacks crammed to the brim with reduced stock. Never before has Boots sold such a phenomenal amount in a single day in their well reputed sales. The staff were speechless. The recession brings out the hoarder in some and to best effect in some cases.

These are the genuine sales in my opinion, the ones which represent best value for money.

There is a prolonged silence. ‘ Could I send a photographer out to take pictures of you and your daughters please?’

I wonder for a moment, how will they illustrate me saving money? But I agree. An hour later a photographer is booked.
The next morning I have the twins dressed in outfits from a sale, looking cute and girly and I’m dressed in an hour casual but hopefully flattering and the photographer comes knocking.
Three hundred photographs later, of me with the my daughters on their discounted swing set in the garden, me with my discounted Tesco shopping walking home, then in the kitchen, me sat with the BView screen on my laptop and then the girls and I apparently looking at BView (but sneakily looking at CBeebies for maximum attention span of 3 year olds), the photographer puts away his lenses and leaves with a smile and a wave.

The next day I buy the newspaper, searching for what I hope will be a nice quote and a pleasant photograph. There’s a huge full page spread on money saving and the impact of BView and others, great lists and links to save money and at the bottom is an interview section with the details of the single chap and his daughter, his money saving tips and tricks and his total savings over the year, illustrated by a small photograph of a very serious looking man.  Squashed into the corner is a small paragraph about my girls and I and our own adventures in saving, but no pictures.

Still, through talking to the journo, I’ve heard myself give my opinion, further concreting it into my mind; not all savings are genuine. A voucher will save you money if you were going to buy the item anyway. Or it will lessen the load if you would like something but would only buy it with reductions.
Shop sensibly for genuine savings.

Tags: interview, press, saving, sunday mirror, vouchers
Posted in General, News, Savings | Comments Off

The consumer trap

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Everyone likes the idea of something for nothing, however, where loyalty cards are concerned, the phrase ‘It’s too good to be true’ may hit the nail on the head.
Loyalty cards came into common use in the mid 1990’s, a stroke of marketing genius which saw supermarket giants market shares entirely unbalanced and a terrifying customer retention. This galvanised the opposing chains into action and in just two years loyalty cards were rife.

Tesco and Sainsbury battled head to head, Safeway briefly stepped in but retreated to no mans land, later being aquired by Wm Morrisons and Boots stomped all over the concept. Each promising their own advantages, each touting their perks as discounts and bonuses for loyalty and for each promise we sold our souls, arming them with ways to make us spend more money, allowing them lead us into temptation with extra points and lower prices.

Now the face of shopping may have changed forever. Each of us has given the much needed market research data about our habits, if we live alone or are on a diet if we eat meat or live on convenience foods. In fact, they’ll know what you’ve been up to if you buy a pregnancy test and what the result was if you start buying nappies. Then they’ll target you, with coupons and extra points vouchers, tempting you to buy more expensive brands than you usually might, or to wean your baby on a more expensive food, which if your child likes, you’ll buy more often and they’ll reap the reward on the profit. Genius!

Our shopping habits are hoarded on computers and sometimes sold to others for greater market power and we agree to that.

Generally the power lies very much with the shop. The card holder is targeted and tormented, given incentives and persuasions to buy what the store needs to shift or to move the customer up a brand level.

It’s rare that these cards will offer enough to the user to warrant the sale of information but there just a few which make it worthwhile if you don’t mind your preferred toilet paper type being bandied around.
Tesco have a catalogue of offers to choose from, other than simply cashing the coupons instore against your groceries. In the catalogue, your coupons are worth 4x as much, so £5 of coupons gives you £20 of treats in the catalogue.
I thought I had managed well to get breakdown cover for two people on two vehicles using my coupons, until I read on MoneySavingExpert.com about those who had new cars as a result of super clever offers shopping. Changing their eating habits to suit whatever maximised their points and taking the resulting coupons to the car chain involved, driving away with brand new vehicles and with less than two years grocery shopping. Every penny recouped in a car.

Tesco hold a significant 32% market share (compared to 16% each for Sainsburys and Asda), the exchange for the brand new cars which slipped off the forecourts via Clubcard vouchers, until the supplier Motorpoint, ceased their cooperative with Tesco in 2008.
Still, with record profits in the region of 2.8 billion this time last year and the strongest loyalty card legacy, I doubt it made much of a dent.

Boots have a whole legion of shoppers who sniff out the bargains and how best to spend on each item, maximising coupon returns and discounts. A recent example was the 97p sachet of Pantene conditioner, which yielded a 100 point return on the Boots Advantage card, a profit of 3p. By purchasing ten Pantene sachets, I could achieve a return of 1,000 Boots points to make my originally intended purchase, technically getting the sachets free of charge and a 30p profit. In a further manoeuvre of super savvy shopping, if those purchases were broken into groups of £5 or slightly more, a coupon was given out which entitled the bearer to £5.00 off Boots own No.7 products.
If you had originally intended to buy a pack of No.7 face wipes (5.50) and a bottle of No.7 cellulite body lotion(£5.00) you would ultimately transfer £9.70 into 1,000 points on your card, spend a further 50p and leave with £20.50 of products.

The loyalty card could prove to be more useful than it was intended with such detailed knowledge of offers and loopholes, turning the previously unrewarding cards back into the two way street we were originally led to believe they were.

Tags: discount, find a deal, loyalty card, money saving, shopping, special offers
Posted in Business, Findings, General | Comments Off

An introduction to online discount vouchers

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

The recession is really starting to bite:  high street stores with never ending sales, reports of shoppers “downshifting” in their weekly shopping and consumers becoming more conscious of how they spend their hard earned cash. It’s getting harder for businesses not just  to attract new customers but to keep the ones they already have. When multi-millionaire Wayne Rooney is looking for 50% off his night out it’s clear that thrifty, shrewd spending is becoming the norm and it’s going to take more than a few extra reward points to persuade people to part with their money.

Some retailers may look upon discount vouchers and special offers as a sign of “bargain” outlets, increasingly though it is becoming a more accepted way of attracting business. The web is playing an important role in this self promotion as it levels the playing field and allows smaller, independent businesses to compete equally with the nationwide chains. An added benefit with online vouchers is how easily they can be shared between one satisfied customer and their network of friends, family and colleagues. Whether it’s via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter or in conversation creating a voucher in a way that encourages it to be shared can only have a positive affect on your businesses online reputation.

What can your business do to attract new custom?

Increasingly savvy consumers are looking online to find the best deals and biggest savings. BView’s new discount voucher search engine brings this money saving mentality into the local area by helping businesses to publicise their latest money off deals, sales and special offers directly to potential consumers – be it locally or nationally.

As a business looking to test the waters of online promotions it’s important to know that not all offers are created equal. There are a number of different types of promotion you can offer depending on your business goals. Choosing the right type of promotion for your customers is vital for it to work for you.

Trying to attract new customers? “10% off your first order!”
Rewarding customer loyalty? “15% off of your renewal!”
Rewarding customers for spending more? “£5 off a £50 spend!”
Need an extra edge? “Free delivery!”
Seasonal lines coming to an end?  “Buy one get one free!”

Once you’ve decided on the offer that’s best for you and your customers it’s important to think about any restrictions or limitations you need to place on the offer. When will the voucher expire? Can a customer use it more than once? Does it exclude certain items? While it’s never a good thing to be too restrictive, it’s critical to make the terms of the offer clear up front as you don’t want your potential customers to feel like they’ve been cheated out of a deal.

The BView blog will be monitoring what offers work in different sectors, what key trends are occurring and speculating on what the future holds in the online voucher area and the local voucher area.

Tags: credit crunch, money saving, recession, shopping, voucher
Posted in Announcements, Business, Findings | 1 Comment »

Shopping savvy, or, enriching your local community

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Shopping locally was the absolute norm to our predecessors and has become somewhat a fashionable and rebellious statement against chains and supermarkets. It’s a statement which local businesses support for their own growth and staying power but does it hold water?

Buying local produce in local shops is good for farmers and cottage industries, good for agricultural land, better for the ecological impact, the green issues of recycling, climate change and so on but, in these leaner times, is it better for our local economy?

A supermarket will generally pass the vast majority of its finances out of the region, finding produce at the lowest cost, transporting it at lowest cost and selling it at the highest rate it can convince the shoppers to pay for it. The profit returning to the coffers of business and the least money to the originator, out of the area.

There are exceptions, it is well advertised by some supermarkets and by the likes of media community and standards champions that they only sell milk produced within a 50 mile radius of the store, or that all their chickens will be at the basic level caged but not battery hens.
A local store will generally buy locally, mutually supporting those farmers and cottage industries, pay rent or tax locally and spend their profits locally.

It is suggested that this could return money into the local economy of up to 30% of expenditure or higher, thereby enriching the community and providing more opportunity for local business growth and expansion, though only with selective tenancy. Two local grocers supplying the same produce will serve only to cost the local economy in undercutting one another, seeking least cost suppliers in order to reduce prices and attract custom.

Businesses banking could further affect the matter. If a bank loan is to be repaid to a national bank or they have banking charges, money slips back out.

In depth studies in two states in the US in 2002 and 2003 found that up to 55% of each $100 spent in local business may return back to the local community. The studies demonstrated that in each case, the local returns from the national companies were just $13 and $15 in each $100 spent, compared to the figures of $45 and $55 per $100 spent in local stores. This figure shows that each community could potentially increase the local wealth by 66%.
In one instance, those figures translate to a local return of 0.8 million USD from a national company with an increase in purchases but a decrease in local investment. In contrast, the local company made a return of 4.5 million USD into the community. It seems clear and compelling evidence that local investment is the way forward.

Cost is a great concern right now, finding ways to reduce expenditure and tighten the belt during recession is the new interest of many. Money saving is more fashionable than ever and people are finding more and more creative ways or doing just that. People are reducing leisure expenditure (and shopping for the fun of it) and finding new ways to fulfill the retail therapy buzz.

Smaller local businesses often have slightly elevated prices in comparison to supermarkets, because they cannot buy, transport nor store in bulk, increasing the individual price per item. This cost is then passed to the consumer who may balk and compare the cost to Astewamoburys (Asda, Tesco,Waitrose, Morrisons or Sainsburys).

In theory, the greater the reinvestment in local business, the greater the local business and in turn more local businesses are created to meet the need but reduce the cost, a miniature model of national economy but to the benefit of people close to you and eventually to each person.

What’s more, local produce may benefit you physically. The delay from harvest to kitchen might be a week when purchased at a supermarket and in contrast might only be 24 to 48 hours in a small local business. You glean the advantage of the retained nutrients, rather than the loss where sugar turns to starch, plant cells collapse and dehydrate, vitality wasted.

Posted in Business, Findings, General | 1 Comment »