Featured Startup Pitch: Coupay’s coupon and price-comparison engine rewards users with cashback for sharing deals on social media

By Lucas McEntee, Coupay co-founder and CEO

Product/Service Description

Coupay is a coupon, cashback and price-comparison site. Coupay has more than 2,000 retailers, hundreds-of-thousands of coupons and more than 16 million products that we compare prices on. What makes us different? Users can browse deals on Coupay, and if any of the deals stand out, or seem relevant to the interests of their followers, our customers can share them across their social media networks—whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Google+. Coupay tracks the referral link, and should that share eventuate in a sale, the person who shared the deal earns cashback—usually ranging between five percent and ten percent. Coupay is rewarding people for their social sharing. This provides a win/win for our customers and retailers, who get access to a new sales channel.

Founders’ Story

Coupay’s other founder, Hemang Lashkary, and I noted down all the pain points for consumers and retailers, while at the same time listing all the lowest competition spaces we could find. Through elimination and research, Coupay was formed. It’s an exciting space to be in right now, and since launch it’s a great feeling to have our model vindicated, with more than 50 percent of our income coming from social sharing.

Marketing/Promotion Strategy

The most successful marketing is the social networks themselves. Our users are promoting our business every time they share. I find the best way to keep getting the best from our marketing is to communicate with our customer base. Asking them what worked and what didn’t on a small scale is the quickest way to see what works and what doesn’t.

Market Opportunity

In the billions—the coupon market (RetailMeNot, Coupons.com, Ebates) produces billions of dollars a year of sales for retailers, yet engagement is low with these customers on these sites. Sites like Pinterest and Wanelo have high engagement with their users, but don’t offer any deals. Coupay combines these two markets with its social-rewarding commerce platform.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1wUw4mu02c

How We Differentiate From the Competition

Rewarding users for their social sharing is our key point of difference. I firmly believe that when something is shared, the ‘social equity’ of that person is attached to the post or pin. I believe that equity should be rewarded if a transaction takes place; that’s the key point of Coupay—social shopping that pays in cash.

Business Model

Retailers pay Coupay for referring them sales. This is the main source of income so far. However, the data we are gathering on how customers use and interact with Coupay is also a valuable asset, and is something we will be mining in the not-too-distant future.

# # #

Headquarters: Singapore