Laurian Venter, director at OneDayOnly. (Supplied)
South African discount deal website OneDayOnly tried using artificial intelligence (AI) to compare prices against competitors but ditched it after the technology failed to deliver.
Instead, a team manually opens “multiple tabs every single day, comparing the retailers” to ensure customers get the best prices, says Laurian Venter, director at OneDayOnly.
Speaking at a media round table yesterday, Venter explained that AI “just missed so much” when it came to price comparisons, leading to “broken comparisons”.
“It basically turned into chaos and panic. So, we ditched the robot concept. Every single day, we roll up our sleeves and really dive into the data and do everything manually and have that human element,” she said.
In April, McKinsey noted that online pure plays, including Amazon, are increasingly using digital solutions to manage prices and are reacting to competitor prices in as little as one hour.
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“Top-selling items are often repriced three or four times per day and can be repriced up to 12 times daily,” it stated.
Venter explains that, instead of using AI, the team has multiple browser tabs open at any one time, including Google for local listings, to check competitor pricing. OneDayOnly releases new deals at around 1pm each day.
Where OneDayOnly does use AI is when it comes to crunching data on site visitors and purchases, and tracking consumer behaviour in real-time, said Venter.
The technology also enables personalised marketing. “We are using AI to pull our data dashboards together… and different customers will get different newsletters based on personalisation.”
McKinsey also notes that “consumers are increasingly expecting personalised deals, and some retailers are able to deliver these based on past shopping history”.
OneDayOnly launched on 8 April 2010 “at exactly 45 minutes past midnight” with no warehouse, no customer service teams, and no customers. It’s targeting 10 million customers by year-end.
Venter explained that decision-making around daily offerings sits with a dedicated merchandising team who analyse which categories attract visitors, whether deals deliver adequate savings, and whether the product mix is right.
Each day, more than 300 deals are loaded onto the site. At midnight, those offerings are removed, and the update process begins again. “It’s Groundhog Day, every day.”
In addition, no technology is involved in negotiating with suppliers, as potential sellers, who connect via the website, are contacted by a person, not a bot, according to Venter.
