Speaker 1: The website with Black Friday deals every day of the week.
Speaker 1: What's going on. I'm Rich Damiro. This is Rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Joining me on the show today is Josh Myers. He
Speaker 1: is CEO of the website slick Deals. This is one
Speaker 1: of my favorite websites to check on a daily basis
Speaker 1: because basically they scour the web, or people that are
Speaker 1: using the website scour the web.
Speaker 2: They find the best deals, other folks vote them up.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm just gonna have you describe what
Speaker 1: your website does because I think you're gonna do a
Speaker 1: better job. But basically you unearth all kinds of great
Speaker 1: deals around the web.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, thanks Rich. The slick Deals has been around
Speaker 3: for nineteen years now. We're just celebrated our nineteenth birthday,
Speaker 3: so that's wow. That's really long in Internet terms.
Speaker 2: So that people love saving money.
Speaker 4: People love saving money.
Speaker 3: The site was started in nineteen ninety nine by our
Speaker 3: founder in his college dorm room, and it just started
Speaker 3: out as a blog of him posting what he thought
Speaker 3: were the best deals, and I added the forum functionality
Speaker 3: for users to be able to make contributions and sort
Speaker 3: of in a few years, the users were contributing far
Speaker 3: more than he was, and it became more of this
Speaker 3: crowdsource shopping platform that we see today. So really the
Speaker 3: cool thing about Slick Deals is we we leverage the
Speaker 3: wisdom of the crowd. You know, it's crowdsourcing at its finest.
Speaker 3: And there's millions of consumers on Slick Deals. They're finding
Speaker 3: deals on everything from you know, tools to TVs to
Speaker 3: hiking shoes to tie detergent, and we've done all the
Speaker 3: work for you where you can see something's got one
Speaker 3: hundred thumbs up and it's got one hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: comments from our users. You start getting in there and
Speaker 3: you start reading those comments and you realize, oh wow,
Speaker 3: this is the lowest price that we've seen, you know,
Speaker 3: all year, and you know, to kind of jump on that,
Speaker 3: on that deal.
Speaker 1: And so give me the idea of this this sort
Speaker 1: of front page of deals, because that's the page that
Speaker 1: I have bookmarked. It's kind of like deals from across
Speaker 1: all the different categories right.
Speaker 3: Right, So our front page is where we put the
Speaker 3: very best deals every single day. So every day we
Speaker 3: put about forty it tends to be about forty to
Speaker 3: fifty deals a day that will put up to our
Speaker 3: front page. And it's really based on all that community voting,
Speaker 3: but we have an editorial layer as well, So our
Speaker 3: editors sit on top of this community and they look
Speaker 3: at all the voting and commenting activity, and when they
Speaker 3: see deals that are starting to reach that threshold of
Speaker 3: getting quite a bit of voting and commenting, obviously in
Speaker 3: a positive direction, then they'll go in and they'll take
Speaker 3: a look. They'll go verify that that deal is legitimate,
Speaker 3: they'll test the deal, and then they'll write it up
Speaker 3: and describe it and add some photos and really curate it.
Speaker 3: Then they get it ready and they move it over
Speaker 3: to our front page. And that's where you and I
Speaker 3: can just go to that front page and now you
Speaker 3: know what Slick Deals has said are the best deals
Speaker 3: of that day.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about Black Friday, because this is a
Speaker 1: huge shopping day. Everyone is basically has their kind of
Speaker 1: shopping list ready for Black Friday slash Cyber Monday.
Speaker 2: What are you see in this year? What's kind of
Speaker 2: the trend you're seeing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we looked at the National Retailer Foundation the NRF,
Speaker 3: and they did a study and a survey. They do
Speaker 3: it every year and this year, they're projecting just over
Speaker 3: one thousand dollars per per consumer for holiday spending. That's
Speaker 3: up four point one percent from the prior year. So
Speaker 3: that's that's pretty strong growth. And of course we all
Speaker 3: know things are moving more and more online, but it
Speaker 3: actually moved ten points, so it was a ten point
Speaker 3: move towards online. So it's massively moving online at a
Speaker 3: pretty heavy pace.
Speaker 1: So you're saying that Black Friday, which I used to
Speaker 1: buy the way wait in those lines a couple of
Speaker 1: times over the Black Friday holidays. Yeah, for like, you know,
Speaker 1: the best buy deals. I got a I think a
Speaker 1: PlayStation once. I don't even know if it was, like
Speaker 1: maybe it was PlayStation two. So do we have to
Speaker 1: wait in those lines anymore? Or do you think that
Speaker 1: we can just go online and be just as confident
Speaker 1: as the stuff that we're seeing is like the doorbusters?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: They have the doorbusters I think mostly in both places now,
Speaker 3: but and there still is this offline element, and there
Speaker 3: still are offline brick and mortar, you know, deals that
Speaker 3: might draw some crowds. It's our point of view though,
Speaker 3: that the best prices are also available online and increasingly
Speaker 3: that I think that is the direction you're gonna see
Speaker 3: it go.
Speaker 4: But there's always going to be these.
Speaker 3: Teasers to try to to try to get you in store.
Speaker 3: You know, we talked a little bit about the free
Speaker 3: shipping aggressiveness that's going on, and then you know, Walmart
Speaker 3: isn't necessarily offering any special free shipping, but they're doing
Speaker 3: coffee and cookies in store on not.
Speaker 1: Really, so coffee and cookies in store is going to
Speaker 1: get me to go to the store versus sitting in
Speaker 1: my house with you know, in my pajamas and shopping.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's interesting though.
Speaker 1: It brings back kind of an air of community to
Speaker 1: kind of a brick and mortar.
Speaker 2: Tell me about the shipping.
Speaker 1: You mentioned free shipping, so we know Amazon this year,
Speaker 1: which you know, I was kind of a little upset
Speaker 1: because here I am a prime member for since day one,
Speaker 1: and now they're offering shipping for free to everyone. But
Speaker 1: it's not the same shipping that I'm getting as a
Speaker 1: prime member, you said.
Speaker 3: Right, So we looked at some research that said ninety
Speaker 3: four percent of consumers are planning to take advantage of
Speaker 3: free shipping this holiday season, and we just know all
Speaker 3: the time free shipping is always the best. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: always the best, and it's such a powerful message. And
Speaker 3: you know, even actually if the net price including shipping
Speaker 3: is lower, but you have to pay for shipping, but
Speaker 3: you're ultimately getting a better deal, it's still hard for
Speaker 3: people to pay for shipping. Psychological, psychological.
Speaker 1: And I've noticed that some of the things on Amazon,
Speaker 1: being a Prime member, I only pretty much only shop there.
Speaker 1: I've noticed that prices are a little bit higher sometimes, yeah,
Speaker 1: but they include that that shipping cost has to go
Speaker 1: in somewhere right, right, And so I've noticed that, Like,
Speaker 1: but if you're an Amazon shopper, you don't necessarily shop around, right.
Speaker 3: So Amazon's offering, as you mentioned, they're offering free shipping
Speaker 3: to everyone. They're cap on that consumer psychology of free
Speaker 3: shipping being so important. But they're only giving the slow
Speaker 3: ship option to the non Prime members. So don't necessarily
Speaker 3: expect that if you're a non Prime member that the
Speaker 3: free shipping you're going to get is going to be
Speaker 3: the two day Prime shipping.
Speaker 1: And then Prime members are getting even faster. I heard
Speaker 1: they're they're giving us like same day on certain items.
Speaker 3: On certain items, you can get same day depending on
Speaker 3: what part of the country you live in, and and
Speaker 3: you know, I think there are a lot of algorithms
Speaker 3: you know that go into that. And then Target as
Speaker 3: well is offering you know, they're going really aggressive on
Speaker 3: free shipping, and they're offering their two day shipping free
Speaker 3: to everyone during this you know, holiday shopping period. So
Speaker 3: you know, they're going really aggressive. And it's interesting that
Speaker 3: Walmart at least not yet has Walmart has not announced
Speaker 3: they're going to go down that that hardcore free shipping path.
Speaker 1: So what's the deal with Walmart? You spend what twenty
Speaker 1: five thirty five forty five.
Speaker 4: Walmart is thirty five dollars to get the two day shifting.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's talk about some of these deals. So
Speaker 1: we saw the Google Home Hub normally one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty bucks. This is one of my favorite gadgets of
Speaker 1: this season. I think they're going to sell a lot
Speaker 1: of these things. You've got it down to like eighty
Speaker 1: five dollars, but it's at Coal's Rights, a place I
Speaker 1: wouldn't normally think would sell the Google home Hub.
Speaker 3: Right, So, the Google Home Hub is normally one forty nine.
Speaker 3: They have it marked down to ninety nine, and then
Speaker 3: they give you fifteen dollars of coal's cash back, so
Speaker 3: the coals cash can only be redeemed in coals and
Speaker 3: you need to find you know, obviously find something to
Speaker 3: do with that coal's cash. But gets you down to
Speaker 3: eighty five dollars on that Google Home Hub. And and
Speaker 3: you know, for anyone who's had the Google Home Mini,
Speaker 3: let's say, a precursor device, or even if you're part
Speaker 3: of the Alexa ecosystem, you know how convenient it is
Speaker 3: to have this powerful, you know device maybe in multiple
Speaker 3: rooms in your home. But the fact that the Google
Speaker 3: Home Hub has a screen, then maybe that's the one
Speaker 3: that goes in kind of the kitchen or kind of
Speaker 3: that main area where you find yourself, you know, using
Speaker 3: it all the time, and then you can put.
Speaker 4: You know, minis in some of the other rooms.
Speaker 3: But you know, I don't know if you've done some
Speaker 3: of the integrations, like uh oh yeah.
Speaker 1: I in fact, I just I just noticed because the hub,
Speaker 1: which is really cool, it lets you see visually all.
Speaker 2: The devices connected in your home.
Speaker 1: And I've got cameras, I've got lights, so I just
Speaker 1: discovered that you can swipe down and see all your
Speaker 1: lights that you have connected so I was able to
Speaker 1: change all the lights in my home at the same
Speaker 1: time to blue or whatever color you want.
Speaker 2: It gives you actually, like.
Speaker 1: A little dots of color so you can just select,
Speaker 1: which was really cool because normally, like I have a
Speaker 1: mix of Lifix lights and what is it hue lights.
Speaker 1: I have some ge bulbs I was testing. They all
Speaker 1: have different apps that use to control them. But Google
Speaker 1: Home Hub somehow integrates that all into the hub, which
Speaker 1: is really cool. So what's your advice for people using
Speaker 1: Slick Deals to plan for Black Friday and also shop
Speaker 1: on Black Friday? Do you get ideas from the website?
Speaker 1: Do you kind of single out things that you want
Speaker 1: and research on the website? Do you do combination of both?
Speaker 3: Well, So, I think what slick Deals does at its best,
Speaker 3: if we're doing our job here for a Black Friday,
Speaker 3: we're taking and doing all the work for you. So
Speaker 3: if you just look at the Coals Black Friday ad alone,
Speaker 3: it's fifty plus pages. Let's say there's ten items per page.
Speaker 3: We're talking about five hundred plus items that are for sale,
Speaker 3: and they're all on sale. They're all at least okay deals,
Speaker 3: but they're not all can't miss deals right, and so
Speaker 3: then you take that and you multiply that times. Every
Speaker 3: single retailer is Black Friday ad and now you have
Speaker 3: thousands and thousands of products that are for sale. Some
Speaker 3: are okay deals, some are good deals, some are amazing deals.
Speaker 3: Do you really want to go through and do all
Speaker 3: the work to look through all that stuff? So if
Speaker 3: we're doing our job, then we have made it really
Speaker 3: simple and we've done all the work for you.
Speaker 4: You can come right to Slick Deals.
Speaker 3: You can sort by the amount of votes it's getting
Speaker 3: from our users, and if you do that, then you'll
Speaker 3: just see, regardless of which ad scan it's in, just
Speaker 3: the best deals come to the top.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's just fun. Sometimes it's just competitive to get
Speaker 3: the best deal. You just you get a thrill out
Speaker 3: of knowing that you that you got that best deal.
Speaker 3: But there's also a practical element to it as well,
Speaker 3: which is sort of making people's dollars go further. So
Speaker 3: you're helping, uh, you know, slick Deals, we're helping you know,
Speaker 3: families sort of get it done right and kind of
Speaker 3: get the stuff they need, whether it's household items like
Speaker 3: they're tied detergent or whether it's you know, a gift
Speaker 3: for for their kids, this gaming console. You know what,
Speaker 3: if your kid really wants, you know, that that PlayStation
Speaker 3: or that Xbox.
Speaker 4: Right, they're not they're not cheap.
Speaker 1: So go to slick deals, search PlayStation, see where the
Speaker 1: best deal is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll get you. We'll get you half the half
Speaker 4: the price.
Speaker 2: Coupon codes do you guys? Do you have that on
Speaker 2: your side?
Speaker 4: We do. We have all the coupon codes.
Speaker 3: We we maintain, you know, pretty robust pages of the codes,
Speaker 3: whether it's you know, Macy's or really every retailer.
Speaker 2: And how do you find those on your website? Because
Speaker 2: I'm always interested in those?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So you go, you go up to the top
Speaker 3: navigation on the website and there's a there's a link
Speaker 3: called stores. You go there, you click on that, and
Speaker 3: then you're looking at sort of a view of let's
Speaker 3: say best Buy, and you're looking at all the codes
Speaker 3: we have for best Buy and all the deals we
Speaker 3: have at best Buy. So we kind of curate it
Speaker 3: all into that one spot for best Buy Specifically.
Speaker 2: It kind of works both ways.
Speaker 1: If I know where I'm shopping, I can also go
Speaker 1: to slick Deals to kind of find the deals for Macy's.
Speaker 1: Let's say shopping there right, great, Josh Myers, thanks so
Speaker 1: much for joining me on the podcast. Definitely check out
Speaker 1: Slick Deals the website. I have this thing bookmarked. I
Speaker 1: love looking at the front page deals. If you want
Speaker 1: a link to Slick Deals, you can go to my website.
Speaker 1: It's rich on tech dot tv, or check the show
Speaker 1: notes and happy shopping on Black Friday. Hope you find
Speaker 1: everything that you're looking for, and don't forget about.
Speaker 2: Cyber Monday as well.
Speaker 1: Absolutely all right, Josh, thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you guys real shoe goo.
Speaker 4: Bye. Yeah,