As a shopaholic, I can personally list out numerous instances where I have either made a purchase I do not need or have bought a product out of haste only to find it marked down later. Such instances make me feel guilty, frustrated and not to mention broke. I am sure many of you reading this article can relate to these situations. Oh how we wish there was something that could let us shop smart and intimate us when the products we like are available at best possible prices!
Well your wish has finally come true. We introduce you to PWUL! It is this cool app in town that allows you to shop smartly and stick to your budget. This app can track anything you ask it to thus you only buy when the price drops. You can also set a target price for an item. So if your object of desire is reduced, but not enough, you needn’t buy until it’s in budget.
Meet The Rimmer Couple!
Pay What You Like also commonly referred to as PWUL was ideated and co-founded by power couple Callum and Charlotte Rimmer.
Newlyweds Callum and Charlotte started PWUL in summer 2014. Charlotte inspired Callum to create a free app that would allow anyone to track any product on any website. Charlotte, a fashion photographer by profession, was enthused by the idea and together they started to create what would become PWUL.
Callum has been working in web development for 15 years. He was a lead developer in a number of startups and blue chip companies. One notable position was his role as Lead Developer on MyFootballClub, which became the first online community to fully run a professional sports club in history. It crowdsourced £1.5 million in funding and had about 50,000 members. His last role was as Lead Developer for Goldman Sachs. He has worked for a number of blue-chip clients in finance, retail, publishing and media.
In June 2013, Callum left Goldman Sachs to get married and soon after the honeymoon, husband and wife started working on PWUL. Charlotte deals with all the Marketing and Communications while Callum does all the app development.
Know PWUL Better!
The PWUL (Pay What You Like) app transforms shopping by monitoring any product you ask it to and alerting you as soon as it is reduced. PWUL works like a budgeting tool with the fun of window-shopping thrown in. Just sign up with your email, make a wish list and wait for the savings to roll in. It puts rational decisions at your fingertips and helps you stay in budget while getting what you want.
How PWUL Works?
The app works on any browser, any device and is completely free. You can simply and quickly track products by using the browser extension for chrome or the bookmarklet or by copy and pasting the ULR into your account.
PWUL is an innovative solution to your shopping dilemmas. It answers pivotal questions like, Can you afford it? Do you need it? Will it go in to the sales? Do you even want it? This app creates a whole new shopping experience where you are in control. In a way, it is your personal shopper, budgeter and sales spy all rolled into one.
The Driving Force!
Charlotte loves to shop. Callum loves to budget. Callum watched as Charlotte once again got consumed in sale frenzies only to return home with many irrational purchases that she didn’t actually want or need. He listened as she complained when she spotted things she had purchased that had later dropped in price.
Being the dutiful husband that he is (and out of concern for their credit card), Callum got his thinking cap on. The only web based solutions to this problem seemed to be focused on Amazon and a limited number of online retailers. Thus Callum decided to build a simple solution that would work on any website.
On The Challenges Faced!
The task of designing a ‘one click’ price capturing engine that successfully takes the salient information from a webpage and displays it back to the users was a challenging process for the couple.
“Our price capture engine uses machine learning, so each time a user flags up a mistake it educates the software to recapture information so it will remember each time after that. The accuracy of first time price matching has gone up from 76% to 88% in the last month. Every time someone uses it, it gets better. We have an API that we plan to make public in the future which is directly developed from this work data capture work,” adds the team.
The Contenders!
There is a massive demand for consumer led applications like PWUL that allows them to shop smart, alerts them about discounts and lets them buy products at best possible price.
Nevertheless, in terms of competition, CamelCamelCamel, PriceTrackor, Pricenoia and TrackIT do pose as potential competitors as they provide a price alert service. However, their services are all limited as you can only track from selective websites whereas PWUL work on any website and product.
Further, even UK companies like Flubit pose as competitors as they are trying to meet the demand from customers to save money. Moreover, Flubit has gained over four million pounds in VC funding thus giving it an upper edge in terms of resources. However this company again is limited as it is Amazon centric.
The Journey Ahead & Target Audience!
“We are currently building a solution that tracks products over multiple websites to get our users the absolute best deal. We are also creating a mobile app that can be used to scan a barcode when you are shopping on the high street. After a barcode is scanned, it then instantly tracks the product online through numerous retailers and informs the user when the price meets their target”, says the couple.
At the moment, PWUL is mainly targeted at users that want to take control of their spending and want to find a smarter way to shop. Currently, majority of users are from USA and UK. However the app works worldwide and folks from around the globe can use it.
The Monetizing Model!
When it comes down to monetizing the app, the team’s plan is to provide an analytics based service to retailers thus allowing them to understand the price users are willing to pay for items. This will be beneficial to the retailers as it will enable them to maximize the potential revenue generated from unrealized user spending.
“We aim to make PWUL the best platform that retailers can use to retain customers and generate revenue even after the user has left their site. However we won’t ever sell any user data or contact details”, further adds the couple.
Well it is time for you to shop and spend smartly! In order to help you with this feat do remember to add PWUL to your browser. This app will track the products you want and will notify you when it is available at the best price possible.
To download the app as well as to know more about it, do visit: https://www.pwul.net
