Price-savvy South Africans Will Guzzle This Down

A brand new company is promising to take the ‘hunt’ out of ‘bargain-hunting’ for South Africans. Launched a little under a month ago, Guzzle is a specials search engine, or specials aggregator, that brings together all of South Africa’s specials on appliances, cell phones, electronics, and even groceries, in one place.

The idea behind Guzzle is simple: it presents the South African public with all of the latest deals from South Africa’s major retailers, including Pick ‘n’ Pay, Makro, Dion Wired and Game Stores, on one easy-to-navigate website. People no longer have to leaf through pages and pages of newspaper catalogues every week.

Guzzle also allows anyone to sign up for email alerts and get notified when the product they want appears at a price that suits them. Someone signed up for a Guzzle alert on the Canon D600, for example, would have seen the camera’s price drop dramatically in under a month: from R9999 at Makro, to R9495 at Orms, finally appearing at R8499 at Makro. By singing up for alerts, you’re able to monitor the item you’d like and then purchase it at its best price, which could ultimately save you hundreds or even thousands of Rands.

With its roots in their own frustration at searching through voluminous newspaper catalogues for specials, the company’s founders, Ricard Meulemans and Oliver Bryant, emphasize the openhanded aspect of the site: Guzzle is free.

“One thing that sets Guzzle apart is that it exists purely for the consumer. We don’t sell anything,” says Meulemans.

Meulemans and Bryant are also the founders of other successful online businesses - Accommodation Direct and KrugerPark.com, which specialize in vacation rentals across Africa. Meulemans was a commercial pilot before becoming an entrepreneur and, Bryant, a Computer Science graduate and developer.

As with their other businesses, Guzzle is a self funded project that aims to provide consumers with an easy system for finding what they want online. With online businesses being an area of such rapid growth amongst South Africans price aggregators have become a popular way of shopping around, without actually having to go anywhere. What makes Guzzle different from sites like Price Check?

“There is no other site on the web in South Africa like Guzzle. We’ve taken the place that was previously filled by newspapers and print media, and adapted it for a growing web-user base,” Meulemans assures.

Guzzle only lists products on special – so when they are using Guzzle, consumers are comparing products that are already discounted. They can also see how long the item is on promotion for, so price-conscious South Africans are able to find the best deals and avoid buyer’s remorse. And who doesn’t want to save time and money?

“The site, the whole concept, is designed with the consumer in mind - we want to take the hassle out of shopping around,” says Meulemans, “Guzzle should be the first stop for any consumer looking to make a purchase.”

For all SA's Newspaper and Catalogue Specials, go to Guzzle.co.za.