By Aimee Chanthadavong
Wyngle is giving Australian brands the opportunity to group sell lifestyle products and services for $1 while still helping them maintain their profit margin.
Developed by Sydney-based company Wyn Factory, the website is based on a buying concept called ratio shopping. This is where each item that is for sale on the site is assigned a ratio that determines which customers pay $1 and which customers pay the advertised price.
For example a high performance bike such as the Cell Team Shimano 105 Road Bike is featured on the site for $1,199 with a ratio of one in three, so a customer wanting to purchase it will commit to paying that price, but may be the lucky one in three and come up as a winner – reducing the overall price for that customer to just $1, which also includes delivery.
Wyngle founder Sebastian Langton told RetailBiz that the site is working towards giving Australian retailers and brands a platform to compete equally in the online realm – particularly against group buying and daily deal sites – by protecting their pricing point while still giving consumers the incentive to purchase.
“I saw there’s a massive need to challenge that space and to come up with something a little different because I always look at these discount websites as offering ‘discounted’ products based on inflated prices. This daily deal model has exacerbated this and so this where the idea came about,” he said.
“I’m also trying to make it better by putting fun and excitement back into shopping. Let’s give our local businesses the opportunity to challenge the discounting that has been going on with these daily deal and group buying sites. We’re getting killed and this no-tax under $1000 is allowing consumers to buy overseas at prices that are much lower than ours and that is a shame.”
The winning purchases are allocated sequentially, not randomly, so if it's one in three then every third purchase is the winning purchase therefore consumers are guaranteed to walk away with something, which is what Langton highlighted as he explained that Wyngle’s operations are far from a lottery draw, despite being registered with NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming & Racing.
“The way we’ve done it is through a sequential ordering system. It means it’s predictable and it means it’s guaranteed if say the ratio is one in three and you order all three, you’ll get one of those three products for a dollar. Unlike a scratchy where the odds of winning are much lower because they are randomly displaced. So if you want to buy in bulk, we’ll say thank you by giving you one of the products for $1,” he said.
Currently, Wyngle is selling approximately 400 products from brands including Apple, Canon, Dyson, ModelCo, aussieBum and UGG Australia. In order to maintain its appeal to the local market, the website aims to list known and trusted brands, but avoids listing the same product from two different suppliers as it could potentially encourage pricing competitions.
CEO ModelCo Shelley Barrett said Wyngle is an innovative concept that will bring incentive to shoppers without the need for brands like ModelCo to discount its products.
“I think the Australian retail business has changed tremendously with the US dollar as consumers are now shopping online and importing cheaper products instead of going into buying our products in department stores, which is the the habit we try to break. Wyngle's strategy will allow us the opportunity to fulfil consumer needs without the need to dscount the brand," she said.
Similarly, aussieBum founder and CEO Sean Ashby said Wyngle is a concept that will provide the brand an opportunity to create additional sales without discounting.