During the week we came across a project called RetailMeNot, which fosters an active user-lead community based around sharing coupons and discount codes. It's essentially a social medium in itself, allowing users to log in to their own profiles, from which they can generate points, chat with others and start sharing coupons.
What We Like
In comparison to other coupon sites like Coupon Code USA and Coupon Cabin, RetailMeNot is so easy to use. Because it is driven by user-uploaded content all of the coupons are legitimate and trustworthy, and you don't find yourself clicking through to any spammy websites.
At the moment the site is running a competition called MoneyJar where users are asked to guess, funnily enough, how much money is in a jar. It's an age-old concept, but brilliant in its simplicity. Each user has to tweet their prediction to the @retailmenot Twitter feed and include the hashtag #moneyjar.
A quick search of the results shows a phenomenal amount of traffic for the competition, with a new prediction being submitted about every 10 minutes. For a profile with less than 45,000 followers this is a great achievement (as a quick comparison, this is about the same frequency of updates mentioning the hashtag #holden).
Why It Works
I've already mentioned it a couple of times, but this site's focus on keeping it simple and user-friendly really is the key. Right from the home page the user is clearly presented with the content and there are no questions as to where they have to go to get what they want. I mean, who wants to enter a captcha code as soon as they land on a website?
The other reason RetailMeNot works so well in keeping its content clean and usable is its resource of active members which drives good quality content onto the site every day. They even incentivise sharing by awarding prizes and badges to the most active users, much like other online social platforms like GetGlue and Foursquare.
RetailMeNot has come up with an innovative concept in an industry plagued by hundreds of carbon copied websites and "me too" ideas. So this week we're pleased to announce them the recipients of the Traffika Thumbs Up Award. Well done guys!
