In an economy where all one hears about are companies going under, taking huge losses, or hosting another round of layoffs, it’s refreshing to see a company actually growing by record numbers.
The good news for consumers is that DealsPlus, an online shopping social network, is all about helping people save money. With an estimated $3 million in affiliate sales, $8 million in overall sales, tremendous profit margins, and over 2 million unique visitors per month, it looks as if the deals business is booming.
DealsPlus, a Bay Area, California company, has other plans in the works as well. This week, it will be announcing that it’s coming out of its beta version after two-and-a-half years, as well as re-launching what is a simpler design with a more user-friendly platform. For a young company with no venture capital or angel funding, DealsPlus has certainly taken online shopping to a new level.
“We’re committed to bringing our users a more unique and interactive shopping experience, by offering several ways to share and retrieve content,” says Marketing Director, Zia Ahmad. “Users can find and share coupons or deals, rate them, create shopping lists, make friends with other shoppers, and even share money-saving tips. All in all, it’s a pretty comprehensive online shopping experience.”
DealsPlus attempts to break the monotony of “bargain” or “discount” sites by differentiating itself with a touch of personality. A video, featuring hand-drawn images of potential “DealsPlussers” explains what the site is all about, and how to use it.
>Perhaps one of the biggest ambitions of DealsPlus is that it allows retailers and merchants to create their own retail page, or store, within DealsPlus, stipulating that the merchant should post products at a discounted rate. Users benefit from lowered prices on items, and retailers benefit from increased traffic flowing to their web sites. “We’ve developed licensing agreements which allow retailers to take advantage of our ‘plus’ button, which places a counter on a retailer’s product page and tracks the number of users who approve of the deal. Highly approved deals are then shown on the front page of DealsPlus where it will be seen by over 50,000 users in one day,” says Ahmad.
“Our goal,” says site developer Calvin Lai, “is to be the Digg.com of consumer products. We want every major internet retailer to have the plus button on their site. We want it to be as common as seeing the dollar sign or the S&H acronym.”
About DealsPlus
DealsPlus is an online shopping social network focused on deals and coupons. It launched in July 2006 and has since grown to over 50,000 users, receiving more than 2 million unique visitors per month. DealsPlus is based in the Bay Area, California.
