idealo

“okay so very exciting to have try new

technology here with a guest I’ve got

Katie Phillips here from ideal Oh who is

the your muck your marketing and cons

director yeah yeah and we’re going to

have a chat about and the company ideal

oh and what you can bring to this very

exciting time because it’s just about to

be Black Friday the biggest shopping day

weekend of the year and ideal oh is this

and it’s actually it’s not a new concept

for website it’s been around for a while

but it’s a really really helpful website

to help you say lots of money in this in

this big shopping weekend so tell us

about ideal oh and what it actually does

and how it can help the listeners I

think when we think of price comparison

we often associate that with me.maybe

home insurance or your energy price

comparison lots of people don’t realize

or maybe don’t think of comparing prices

when they shop online for things I mean

we compare prices on a huge range of

stuff and time it’s things like home

appliances it’s on the washing machine

you can save a lot of money and also

things like new trainers your kids or

just like next things as well like

smartphones tablets so it’s actually a

really broad range of stuff where you

can compare prices online you’ll see the

prices from all the different shops yeah

and you’ll be then able to make the

decision okay I think I want to go to

that shop and and prepare to find the

best price so it’s really important as

you mentioned this time of year and

because as you say we’re coming up to

that for every day everyone’s looking

for a good deal but I think the thing to

remember is that these deals are

actually available year-round it’s just

doing that research and they’re not

doing with the first price you see but

rather okay I found an item I won’t buy

and perhaps yeah maybe I’ll look around

and see is it being offered

anywhere else all night I like this shop

I know they’ve got good customer service

it might be a couple of pounds more I’m

gonna go in that one but it’s just about

giving the power back to the consumer to

say I know what all the prices are I’m

gonna go with that one yeah that’s the

concept behind the company yeah I think

it feels I think you’re right we’re

quite used to comparing things like

insurance and well I say we’re quite

used to maybe let’s just do my world

yeah but yesterday I to buy some hype

clothes so I probably could have

searched for the hype hoodie for my son

on your website probably a much cheaper

price

I just wouldn’t think yeah I mean it

sort of depends obviously we only

compare like for like so it does need to

be a brand in item so you know you have

to be potentially pretty because you

mean to be comparing like for like so

things like you can’t compare prices on

a sofa for example most of the time

because you happen to be branded and

many things can save you money on I

think at the moment they’re not saving

money and I think the other thing to

point out to people put on Black Friday

as well is just to and and why it’s

almost even more important to use a

comparison website like yourself is the

headline offer that they’re putting out

there whoever that may be Amazon or

whatever it’s not necessarily the best

price out there I’ve worked in retail

for a lot of my a lot of my employed

life and there are these sneaky rules of

how you sort show promotions isn’t it

you only have to have an item priced at

a full price in it’s something like one

tenth of your retail shops

yeah every day for 30 days in a row 30

days ago it’s really a really strange

anomaly isn’t it where you can suddenly

claim yeah save 75% on

there’s little tricks that retailers can

use which i think is even more important

than for shoppers to be able to go

actually I’ve flipped a nice thing that

the price last week was this much in two

weeks ago we’ve got a price

lever on each of the products you would

say you’re searching for a new slot you

don’t want to be in a new one that’s

come out so the prices probably haven’t

changed much but on your product and

it’s in the top right-hand corner on the

website we’ve also got it on the app

version and you can just look back over

the last 365 days and see exactly what

the average price was on each of those

days but it’s not May and then that kind

of gives you the power to say oh maybe

I’ll wait because maybe the price will

come down again and so it sort of gives

you gives me back that power to say hey

actually I think I can get a better

price and also then do is that a price

alert so you can say that I want to pay

65 pounds and no more you get that right

thing and then you if and when that

price then drops to your budget you’ll

get a notification from I do either on

the smartphone or or by email and

they’ll say right away it’s dropped your

price action now kind of thing and you

can say oh yeah decide against it I’m

going to jump on that deal so you don’t

miss it

so just two really handy tools

especially around that Friday and let’s

give consumers a bit more a bit more

choice and bit more knowledge yeah yeah

I’m all about any kind of service or

apps that that gives you more control

over what the saves you time so this is

saving you time shopping around and

gives you control over getting the best

prices so what do you think so first

question I’ve got them is about the high

street and what’s sort of happening at

the moment

but so the the it’s almost like the

demise of bigger shops like debenhams is

in a lot of trouble I’ve mentioned other

brands that I’ve heard about Rancho a

lot of the bigger sort department stores

are in financial trouble so is that can

you see that impacting in your sort of

price comparisons can you see prices

falling down on some of the big ticket

items so obviously we missed prices from

lots of different shops and depending on

the product depends on how many

different offers we get in from the

first shop sweet we have a system where

we partner with shops and in order to

show you their prices yeah and I think

that has had an effect in that you’ve

seen and but I think also because at the

moment we’re seeing prices really

changed so combination of bricks and the

high street and probably the effect that

Rex is having on the device at the high

street and is causing some very volatile

price changes at the moment is probably

another reason to right now be even more

cautious when you’re buying something be

there online or in the shops because I

mean I think it’s good to to have a

combination of balance of both isn’t it

no one wants kind of high street

disappear and keep a balance of both and

keep an eye on how much something is

online but also support those smaller

retailers also something that that we do

pride ourselves on that we list the

prices from the big boys you know and

eBay and all those as well as you know

British shops like John Lewis and but

also then smaller retailers that yeah

might not get that audience we list them

alongside each other and that’s really

good if it’s price bars so if you’ve got

a small retailer that said oh actually I

can undercut big boy don’t notice on

this then they’ll be listed right at the

top which is kind of platform that they

otherwise don’t get so we like to think

that we’re supporting smaller retailers

at the same sometimes keeping people

that threats of choice of prices so it

is a worried Oakland High Street I think

consumers can do their bit buying by

keeping a balance of both yeah and I

think I think it’s it’s those retailers

that are setting them sy themselves

aside from everybody else who were gonna

we’re going to prosper and and carry on

doing well I think it’s I know and I do

a little bit of work with John Lewis and

what they’re trying to do is focus on

all these events to sort of give like

free exciting events that bring them

into store to get them suspensory yes

it’s something that’s quite different

yeah yeah exactly making it yeah in my

local one they’ve just introduced this

new and I think what they could it look

a style studio where it’s the cetera

area of the shop you can go and be see a

stylist and that doesn’t cost any money

obviously you spend see buy but yeah

it’s all about the experience

yeah yeah and so what do you think then

the the big question what are the things

that people are searching for at the

moment so I’m assuming that they’re the

things that people are searching one

hour what they’re going to be intending

to buy for Christmas what are the what

may be the maybe start with children

what are the big things that children

are looking for as again obviously and

not digital toys you know like you know

not so much the kind of like

old-fashioned wooden toys where parents

might hope their kids are wanting they

are sort of moving towards the kind of

digital video games so video games

particularly and but we also see a bit

of a kind

move towards like coding toys so like

things that parents are trying to get

their kids into coding and IT from a

younger age there was which was yeah and

things like that are definitely gaining

in popularity so I think parents are

probably seeing what their kids are

interested in and trying to steer them

in a you know in a direction of like oh

well they can learn something from this

so there’s definitely a positive side to

the fact it’s less interested in non

digital toys and also there’s been quite

a lot of interest in these also I guess

they’re electronic they’re not

necessarily digital and toys they’re

sort of soft toys but they move and do

things and you can teach them things

that’s got that kind of coding aspect to

it

yeah stamping one was the tiger boring

China tiger and so we’re expecting those

to be quite big again this year yeah Jim

young yeah and what about what about for

grown-ups what are we looking for

[Music]

and they actually continue to be really

populist I think it was quite a strange

thing to see someone with those little

white things in there is but now it’s

almost like but you don’t think of it

anymore so I’m thinking that you’re kind

of seeing that in society as well but

people are really interested in that

yeah yeah and is is Black Friday for you

is that when you see your highest peaks

of traffic yeah

so I think you’ve got some people who

know about price comparison for shopping

and then you’ve got some people who hear

about price comparison shopping around

that Friday and that then all culminates

on that Friday that we do see more

people comparing prices and I still

think there are there’s a huge chunk of

the population that doesn’t know about

it and they’re just buying a quick check

on your phone could say oh actually this

shops got it even cheaper because we

update our prices well it’s not in real

time so every 30 minutes but it’s like

very very quickly updated yes that phone

it’s really worth just have a quick look

and again those price alerts are really

handy for that Friday because you can if

you’ve got something in mind like you

think oh I want to get those air pods a

little way to present now and then

you’ve got that kind of on the back

burner and then if you advice for people

like spontaneous deals amazing yeah yeah

literally write a list pop it into your

website so you can get the alerts later

watch the price so you know it’s so it’s

like with any sort of financial any sort

of financial management

I think cloning a heads really means

you’re gonna save money in the wrong and

the other thing I can say was see this

this could result in whatever 10 20 50

pounds left the savings for like five

minutes it’s such a great amount of

money to say isn’t it for a tiny bit of

time so yeah

it’s in the axe so it can be even

quicker than five minutes you can have

like a literally quick like two minutes

check done so yeah it’s really worth it

and we did some research actually about

how much people can save in different

we’ve got like we had a look the

potential savings in certain it really

varies because obviously if you’ve got

fairly low price products so like small

children’s toys and the stables there

are less and like the baby toys boots on

and the potential saving there’s only

around six pounds so you might think

well okay it’s not so worth it

although I guess if you’re buying

several baby companies but the Christmas

or something yeah feelings all add up on

something like coffee machines we saw

the attention average therapy was about

61 pounds it’s like you might end you

might see you do anything and then buy

it and then you’re gonna kick yourself

later if you so it’s not that you’re

always going to see that bigger saving

but it really kind of as much as that

all so yeah just really worth having a

look around yeah no absolutely

always always worth checking around save

some money so what is um so you’ve got

yours or existing model what you think

is the future of into other areas of

comparison across Europe so it’s also

kind of interesting for us

[Music]

they need and that’s something that I’ll

see you really keen as a company we act

I think you see a lot of business kind

of turning a blind eye to what’s going

on with the climate and we know that as

an e-commerce company we’re not

completely incident in that but we want

to do as much as we can to try and help

the climate because everyone needs to

act so that’s something that’s going to

be a big big topic for us going forward

what can we do as a company and in order

to try and improve the situation yeah

yeah I’ve I’ve on that know I’ve taken a

decision which is proving quite

troublesome in my life from these

point-of-view but I’m boycotting Amazon

because Sam that well as you all

probably know they’re not very good to

work with on earth sort of business

point of view let alone what they’ve

done to the environment but I did an

interview on an on BBC News talking

about fast

and I was um I was with an MP who was

trying to put this fast-fashion bill

through to just just make a load of

simple changes UK fashion businesses to

try and reduce the impacts of past

fashion and we were sort of we were

talking about the gute retailers in the

bag for you tailors and she told me

about Amazon digging a big hole in

France and pouring a load of TVs into

that big hole and second because they’d

overbought and a product line and it was

almost like that was almost I just knew

they were doing they weren’t treating

there’s a movement for the next year and

then as of 2020 they’re going to ask

their 50% of it this almost kind of push

to say you know things like that might

reach other companies and then actually

that’s that’s really cool that they’re

doing

maybe we should consider what we can do

you know as one company we’re not gonna

make a huge difference and say we what

can we do

it might just set off a chain of you

know friends and there are other

companies that are already hopefully as

a critical mass and yeah a change in the

environment yeah yeah cool okay okay

wonderful

so um for my last questioning are you

okay if I ask you a personal question

about because it’s a question I ask

everybody and it’s always really

interesting what people answer which is

what from you as Casey spirits what is

your biggest financial success and

what’s your biggest financial mistake

because because I write about money

saver short-term all the way through so

long what about have you got any big

learnings that you’ve done that you

maybe wouldn’t do again

in Germany the German banking system is

very very different

– and I think people have got a kind of

preconception of Germany’s a very

efficient country and everything works

very well well thank you is not it’s

like it’s the most backward banking

system in the whole anyway so and

there’s very few free bank accounts

that’s kind of already here that’s

already probably quite a big chunk of

money that I could have saved for me so

that’s why under 3 euros a month which

when you add it up a radius and I also

realized belatedly that has been

charging me I went in there I think it’s

what I signed up with the bank it said

it comes with with a great and that was

included in this contract which that it

includes a card yes you wanted to use

the contact this function you know the

and the FinTech banks over here in the

UK like styling a munzo are they over in

Germany as well yeah I know n 26 folks

I’ve done some work with so much that’s

when you said you you pay for your your

account that’s almost like the model and

26 is going down in the UK

yeah yeah okay so that was very great

and I am definitely using ID and yeah

everybody listening to so the website is

ideal oh thank you very much

yes and everybody save lots of money

back Friday and just make sure it’s

something that was on your list

brilliant thank you well I’m going to

stop recording

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