With Scott Koerner, President and CEOCompany name: uBid Holdings, Inc.
Company url:uBid.com, RedTag.com
What is your company’s Twitter handle? Twitter - uBidDeals
youtube - uBidVideos
Facebook – uBid
Who are the founders of your company? What are your company roots? The uBid brand launched back in 1997, and a little under a year ago, uBid Holdings, Inc. was formed and acquired the brand, making it even more relevant for today’s marketplace. Our Board of Directors is presided over by Bob Geras, an accomplished angel investor.
In 25 words or less, what are you all about? uBid.com and RedTag.com provide a unique online marketplace offering people a fun way to get the products they want for much less than retail.
What problem do you solve? We solve two main problems – one – the need for customers to have access to high value, low priced product in a fun shopping environment. The second is to provide a platform for retailers, distributors and manufacturers to move excess, close out and refurbished product.
What makes your company special? How is your product differentiated in the eyes of the consumer? Actually, no one really does exactly what we do…uBid.com is really unique in that we offer both the fun and excitement of an auction style sale and the convenience of buy now format. We also offer great products that everyone wants at prices they don’t expect. Because our customers essentially set their own prices, they feel invested and better about their purchases. We also offer different types of auctions, such as Megas (large quantity auctions), so more people can get in on the fun with a better chance to win the item they are bidding on. This also allows our sellers to move large product volumes.
How do you make money? Who are your primary customers and why do they choose you? Our customers live in every neighborhood in the US – and we are fortunate to say that our retention rates our high, as a large percentage have been with uBid.com since it originally launched 14 years ago! How do we make money…truth is, sometimes we don’t. In most cases, our auctions start at $1 and proceed without reserves. So you never know when something will be up for bid and not…take off. We sell the product for the winning bidder’s price, which is sometimes not in our favor. We also have a wonderful team of seasoned procurement specialists and account managers that dig daily for the best deals in new, overstock, demo, refurbished and recertified merchandise to post on our sites so we can come out of the gate every day with fresh stock to promote, making our customers want to come back to see what’s new!
Work Hard/Play Hard or The Early Bird Gets The Worm or something else? All of the above! The Internet never sleeps, so neither do we!
What’s the #1 thing on your To-Do list? What keeps us up at night these days is providing what people want and something they will continue to come back for, so we can reach our goals and make a return for our investors. We’ve got several key projects on the table that are designed to enhance the overall customer experience – including a new website coming early next year that will really change up how customers interact with us, and give them more ways to shop for what they want.
What are your dreams for your company? We dream big! We’ve grown fast (over 100% in the last 12 months!) and along this steep growth curve uBid will build value by providing an amazing customer experience from the first time they land on our home page until after they receive their product…and everywhere in between. A place where they will get quality products at a price that surprises them, coupled with the kind of service that actually anticipates their needs and desires by offering new and ever changing shopping experiences.
It’s our kind of town too… but what are the advantages of being a Chicago-based technology company? No matter what people say - the weather’s rough, the politics are crazy, the Cubs never win - my view is, the PEOPLE are the place. Chicagoans are sharp, hardworking and friendly – and we’ve got great talent here! And all anyone has to do is look around at what surrounds us here in this great city – truly the best place in the US is Chicago!
What trends do you see heading into 2011 that are relevant to your industry and company? Internet trends move fast, so we need to stay on top of it! We’re building upon mobile and location-based marketing opportunities, finding new ways to engage with our customers and their world within social media networks, and developing new ways to give them a fresh and interesting experience through website upgrades and customizable tools to add to the fun.
What’s your #1 need going forward… other than funding and customers, anyway? To capitalize on the buzz that is already out there and to expand uBid’s reach by leveraging our accomplished Board and internal talent in collaboration with our many supporters.
What are the biggest challenges you are facing in scaling your business up? One of our biggest challenges is to manage growth – there’s so much available to us that we need to stay focused on our goals while taking advantage of key opportunities along the way and in the long run.
This one is all you… Anything else you want to tell us?For those who don’t know uBid.com and RedTag.com, we welcome you to check us out at uBid.com or our sister site RedTag.com (or visit our Facebook page and enter to win one of our sweepstakes!) If you’re a customer, we really appreciate you and look forward to fulfilling your needs and desires long into the future!