Getting a great deal on the latest tech gadgets and luxury goods has never been this much fun.

As you might imagine, Tech Trends buys the occasional tech product online, in fact, I can’t remember the last time I bought any hardware or software in an actual shop. The reasons for this are threefold; lower prices, product options and ease of access. So when we heard about a new online shopping platform that promised to revolutionise the sector by combining all these features with a fun gamification model and eye-popping discounts, well, we just had to check it out.

What is unique about Slidr is its crowd-discounting pricing model. Powered by a customised proprietary algorithm, it analyses consumer behaviour patterns and decides price reductions accordingly
Share on X

Slidr, a London-based, Lebanese start-up is changing the face of retail and online shopping for the gaming generation. What is unique about Slidr is its crowd-discounting pricing model. Powered by a customised proprietary algorithm, it analyses consumer behaviour patterns and decides price reductions accordingly. The company is part of a London accelerator programme coordinated by the UK Lebanon Tech Hub – a joint initiative by Banque du Liban (Lebanon’s Central Bank) and the UK government.

Slidr, a London-based, Lebanese start-up is changing the face of retail and online shopping for the gaming generation
Share on X

Slidr’s co-founder, Marwan Salem, said that launching the platform in Britain was inevitable, as the UK is the largest e-commerce marketplace in Europe (and third largest in the world) where e-sales had risen 16% in 2016 to £133 billion. The firm’s research shows 41% of the UK population shop online every week, and that 16.8% of all retail trade in the UK is now carried out online.

“The political and economic uncertainty in the UK over the last 18 months has affected high street shopping, as people are much more cautious now. So, consumers will do a lot more research online to hunt down bargains, and are increasingly inclined to buy online too. However, people in Britain really love our high-tech gadgets and luxury items, so all these factors have combined in our favour to make Slidr a great success.”

In order to purchase some of the high street’s most sought-after tech, Slidr users pay a small amount (20p to £2) in the form of credits to reveal the price through an on-screen slider button. Upon the reveal, they have 15 seconds to decide to purchase the product or to let the price disappear. Each slide reduces the price, and the discounted price varies – it can range from a 5% to a 70% reduction, with the average discount on the full retail price during 2017 being 24%.

If shoppers like the price, they can go directly to checkout and get it delivered free-of-charge within two to three business days, or they can wait and slide again as the price may go even lower. When an item is sold, a new one is offered on the site, with its price back up to the higher level, and sliding starts again. This gamification approach differs from other shopping sites that may introduce an element of gambling as the Slidr price is always lower than the full retail price, users cannot lose – no matter when they choose to slide and buy.

If shoppers like the price, they can go directly to checkout and get it delivered free-of-charge within two to three business days, or they can wait and slide again as the price may go even lower
Share on X

Smart Home gadgets were the stars of last year, and we believe this trend will carry on into 2018 - especially with the introduction of the mini and dot versions of personal assistants
Share on X

With their focus on high end, luxury, smart tech products Slidr forecasts that UK gadget-loving consumers will be snapping up personal assistants such as Google Home, Amazon Echo and their derivatives in ever greater numbers after these formed a big part of Slidr’s 2017 end-of-year sales boom.

“Smart Home gadgets were the stars of Q1 this year, and we believe this trend will carry on into second half of 2018 – especially with the introduction of the mini and dot versions of personal assistants, both of which make them more affordable and available to a larger number of people. e feel 2018 will see significant growth in consumer tech sales and online retail, all of it UK-led,” explained co-founder Fouad Assaf

Highest Slidr discount in 2017: Galaxy S8 64GB Midnight Black (sold for £439.58; market price £689; discount £249.42)
Share on X

Tech Trends signed up, took advantage of the new member, 50% off credits offer and with jumped straight into sliding on a 64GB Samsung Galaxy S9. The first slide offered a price saving of about £30 below the starting price of £739. Our second slide offered a £34 discount so we were heading in the right direction!

Tech Trends signed up, took advantage of the new member, 50% off credits offer and with jumped straight into sliding on a 64GB Samsung Galaxy S9
Share on X

I thought we would wait a few more minutes before sliding again to allow time for the price to drop and five mins later we slid for the third time and got a £38 discount. The platform gave me a few seconds to deliberate and take up that offer before resetting and waiting for me to slide again. Clearly, I was too keen and a longer wait would result in a better price as it would allow other sliders to do their thing and chip away at the starting price.

The promise of increased discounts and the anticipation of what the next slide will reveal livens up the online shopping experience
Share on X

I had one slide left so bit my fingernails for ten mins and received a £42 discount, dropping the price below £700. Prices will clearly drop faster and lower if users are battling for a certain device. The mechanism is intriguing and definitely brings a little extra buzz to the shopping experience. The promise of increased discounts and the anticipation of what the next slide will reveal definitely brightens up the whole online shopping experience and is perfect for mobile users killing time commuting or covertly entertaining themselves under the table in a meeting (with a phone!)

All sorts of smart tech are available through Slidr, fitness, sound & vision, gadgets, toys and of course smartphones and tablets but it is in the smart home products that co-founder Marwan forecasts will see the most growth in 2018:

“People will be looking at smart homes much more seriously, and this will be the year they truly come of age. We also believe sales of complementary products to the personal assistants will be a hit in 2018 such as Philips Hue, Nest, Hive products and more.”

All sorts of smart tech is available through Slidr, smart home, fitness, sound & vision, gadgets, toys and of course smartphones and tablets
Share on X

With more than 30,000 registered users, and having recently signed up with Trust Pilot to see how customers rate the Slidr service, the platform has an overall score of 9.6 out of 10 and an array of 5-star ratings on social media. These are exciting times for online shoppers. To try out the platform with your introductory discount credit offer go to the Slidr Website

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Slidr – A New Way to Shop appeared first on Tech Trends.

How these Lebanese start-ups want to change the way we shop

In the last few years the ICT sector in Lebanon has experienced something of a boom, worth an estimated $381 million in 2014 and growing at a rate of 7.9 per cent. Traditionally, Lebanese talent tended to make its biggest impact abroad, with global diaspora estimated at around 14 million. However, this trend has recently started to shift, and we’re experiencing a “youth bulge,” with a new generation of entrepreneurs looking to start companies in their own country.

The global Lebanese diaspora is estimated at around 14 million
Share on X

One of the initiatives fostering this movement is the recently launched UK-Lebanon Tech Hub, a 6-month accelerator designed to help some of the country’s best start-ups to expand their reach and break into new markets. This cohort of promising entrepreneurs recently landed in London to work with institutions such as Cambridge and UCL to take their ambitious ideas to a global stage.

These ideas include several disruptions in the e-commerce space, ranging from social shopping to innovative uses of Big Data and a compelling new crowd-subsidising marketplace that gamifies the online shopping experience.

Slidr is an intriguing application of behavioural psychology to gamify the online shopping experience
Share on X

Slidr works by getting users to reveal a hidden price on their chosen item by using pre-purchased credits. Once the price is shown, users have 10 seconds to decide on whether or not to go ahead with the purchase before the price is hidden again. As more people click on the item, its price continues to plummet down, subsidised by the crowd’s collective credits.

In the last few years the ICT sector in Lebanon has experienced something of a boom, worth an estimated $381 million in 2014 and growing at a rate of 7.9 per cent
Share on X

“The user gets a great price from the start,” explains Slidr Co-Founder Fouad Assaf, a serial entrepreneur who founded and sold his first start-up in 1999. “We guarantee the starting price is lower than the RRP, but HOW much lower depends on how many people slide for it. It’s a fun way to shop that allows users to get fantastic value for exclusive items, and is basically a gamble that you can’t lose.”

It’s a mash-up of shopping and gambling, but it’s a gamble you can’t lose
Share on X

This unique mash-up of shopping and gaming creates a much more rewarding — and addictive — shopping experience: “We’re an entirely new e-commerce proposition focusing on aspirational products and experiences, powered by our algorithm which analyses consumer behavior patterns and decides on the price drop accordingly,” says Marwan Salem, Slidr’s Co-Founder. “This is a place where users will be able to acquire the latest trendy, innovative lifestyle items at guaranteed reduced prices, but also have a lot of fun in the process.”

Over the next months, they will be seeking partnerships with exclusive UK brands and designers to make their products and experiences available on Slidr. They plan to keep a presence in London and run dual operations between the UK and Beirut.

Another startup that’s using the UK’s thriving online e-commerce ecosystem as a springboard to global expansion is thatsoyoo, which brings the missing social layer into online shopping by providing a platform where users share that experience with their network in real time. It connects people and brands seamlessly so that users offer and receive instant feedback on their fashion choices, crowdsourcing opinions from people they actually trust — their friends.

This unique mash-up of shopping and gaming creates a much more rewarding — and addictive — shopping experience
Share on X

“We all know how convenient it is to shop online, but half the fun of shopping, specially when it comes to fashion, is in the social interactions that happen around it,” explains thatsoyoo Founder and CTO James Burbridge. “That’s a big problem with online retail, it can actually leave people feeling really isolated. So we built a platform where you can browse thousands of items from your favourite shops like TopShop, ASOS and Selfridges and get feedback from your friends in real time.”

The site’s chat panel allows shoppers to hold multiple conversations, video chat and watch live as friends view their favourite products. Users can build personalized shopping experiences, browsing hundreds of thousands of products from a wide range of brands, all in one place. “There’s also a huge opportunity for retailers here,” says Burbridge. “Nearly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, and we know that friends, family and social influences have a huge impact in those purchasing decisions. Making the entire process more fun and social directly translates into more sales and fewer returns, as the shopper is much likelier to feel confident and happy with their purchases.”

70% of shopping carts are abandoned, but we know that our social circles have real impact on whether we proceed with those purchases

There are also sizable opportunities for retailers in leveraging Big Data, andMarkelligent, another startup from the UKLTH delegation, creates smart solutions implementing and integrating software, hardware and data analytics in its Software as a Service (SaaS) offering. Brate, on the other hand, uses this type of insight to create a compelling consumer offering, by connecting the offline and online shopping experiences. Consumers can discover the hottest places to eat, drink, shop or visit based on what online users are searching for in over 120 cities.

The company uses big data analytics to identify the hottest trends and respond to customer’s needs and wants in real time, allowing retailers to offer consumers exactly what they want, where and when they want it.

“Brate brings together the best aspects of online and offline shopping in one platform. It transforms the retail experience by giving consumers much more choice, and brings a welcome boost to the high street by connecting outlets with impulse buyers.” said Managing Partner Shadi Tabbara

Connecting the real and virtual shopping worlds is a powerful proposition
Share on X

The service, which is available on web, iOS and Android, launched in San Francisco last August, followed by London in October, and has seen traffic triple in a year to 1.3 million.

“After launching in London last year, we’re excited to unlock the full potential of the UK market to help us expand the service,” said Tabbara.

According to recent figures from the IMRG, by 2021 UK consumers will spend more online than in the high street, but innovations such as these brought by the UKLTH start-ups shows how much room there still is for improving the shopping experience for both consumers and retailers.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Big Data and Big Ideas appeared first on Tech Trends.