Recession, what recession?

 

 

Creating menus, hiring staff, hard work and long, unsociable hours were all too familiar to Mark when he spotted a business opportunity in 2006 while trying to find a discount voucher for a rail ticket online. He realised there was no single site to gather money-off vouchers.

MyVoucherCodes is the UK's leading discount code website and celebrated its 3rd birthday in November 2009 by announcing a record year of £481m worth of sales through retailers offering discount codes and promotional deals. Throughout the year, individuals have saved themselves over £52m at online checkout versus recommended retail price (RRP) using the site, up from £28m in 2008.

Starting any business is difficult enough, but Mark took a big gamble starting MyVoucherCodes as the UK was entering its longest and deepest recession since the Second World War. It was the public's growing acceptance of discount vouchers, satisfying the fiscal hunger for a bargain, which convinced Mark to follow his belief that even during a credit crunch the business stood a strong chance of succeeding.

MyVoucherCodes was the first to spot the change in consumer spending as a result of the recession. It presented the media with hard facts showing that consumer spending had moved from consumer electrical goods to online grocery shopping as people began using codes to save money in this area as well.

Mark believes that innovation and scalability are key drivers to staying ahead of the competition. Having launched in France and Germany, he recently announced his company's first foray into the US market.

"It really is an exciting time, celebrating record results in terms of sales and customer savings" says Mark. "The challenge has been to keep one step ahead of the competition, which is something I've relished. It's through maintaining a strong relationship with the media, our retailers and affiliate programmes that we've managed to keep the distance between us."

He adds, "I intend to enter the American market to shake things up. The affiliate market and discount sector over there is predominantly unregulated, which means that many consumers are left without the code or deal they were enticed to the site for. I propose to change this, and will take with me the fantastic regulations the UK affiliate market impose on discount code websites to ensure consumers find the best possible deals."

"Recession, what recession?" says Mark when asked if the current economic environment is a potential threat to his business. He sees the difficult economic times as a period of opportunity. There was a fear, however, that the country's previous spending habits may come to a standstill during the recession. If people in the UK were to be encouraged to continue spending as a nation then their appetite for incentives needed satisfying.

For anyone considering starting a business in a recession Mark has some helpful tips: "Be creative, use technology to your best advantage and try to embed the business into people's lifestyles."

In Mark's case it was his fortuitous timing in spotting a niche business opportunity, commenting "I could see the Pound Stretcher shops, the '99p stores', and the 'buy cash for gold' stores that seemed to thrive during a recession. So I considered other areas that might be equally attractive from a business perspective where money-saving opportunities showed people demanded value for money."

When asked about the impact on the business when the recession is finally behind us, Mark believes the company will be even stronger and become more fashionable with the public's mindset having changed for good on voucher codes.

The voucher code concept is, Mark feels, here to stay and he sees the addition of more retailers joining the existing list of partners as only positive news for the company. Plans for the introduction of offline vouchers and further expansion overseas means that Mark has a busy 2010 ahead of him, but if he achieves his goals, then the doubling of the company's pre-tax profit will prove that the gamble paid off.

Brian Robinson, Client Partner, Coutts UK