The Yellow Pages Of Sales

Annoyed by missing out on sales, either in your region or nearby? Wellington based Salefinder has the answer with www.salefinder.co.nz, which provides an easy-to-use link between retailers' sales and consumers via the Internet.

Visitors to the site choose one of 18 regions and then search categories, or for companies, products etc. They are then shown current and up-coming sales that meet their criteria. Visitors can also complete a form to be emailed when specific sales occur of products or by companies they like. Catalogues are also available online. Products are not bought online at the Salefinder site.

"Why go out and by a fridge without seeing if it's on sale first?" says Mr Smith. "Another benefit is that many people can't afford to shop at some stores all the time, but they can when there's a sale."

Retailers benefit from being involved through lower-cost (currently free) advertising to targeted audiences, with only interested people seeing their ads. "It basicaly means less wasted advertising money - it's also a level playing field for all retailers." he says.

Either Salefinder can maintain adverts for companies, or advertisers can maintain their own ads using a wizard and automated scheduling. Charging will gradually be introduced at about $5/day, but only when retailers start seeing a benefit.

In the first 3 months 950 retailers have advertised 1600 sales, including major chains such as Toyworld, amie*, Paper Plus, Spotlight, Plumbing World and The Mill. The sixty or so fashion retailers include Karen Walker, Kumfs, Zambesi, Trelise Cooper and many more.

Wellington businessman Peter Smith set up Salefinder essentially because wanted to buy new glasses and got tired of trawling through newspapers coming across sales by accident. "It's gone very well, we maintain the ads & catalogues ourselves, although some retailers enter their own ads. We've hundreds of people now waiting to be told of sales, and it's heartening to hear retailers are selling off the site. The feedback has been very positive from everyone".

They aim to list all of New Zealands sales by the end of winter sale period. "It's ambitious, but if current growth continues, we should be there".

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