The Honey idea came about when Ryan Hudson found out that he did not have enough time to get a discount code for a pizza he was ordering for his kids. Then it struck him – how about an app that quickly and automatically searches for the best coupon codes in the market and applies them to the purchase during checkout?
That is how the Honey app idea was born. And Ryan was no stranger to entrepreneurship in the technological realm at the time. So, he knew just what he needed to do to make the idea a reality. But he admits that Honey has been his most successful venture so far, despite successfully launching other start-ups.
After the brilliant realization that automating coupon code searches could help millions of shoppers, he joined forces with George Ruan and together they made the Honey idea a success. The app comes in form of a desktop extension that works on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox browsers.
You can even use the app to keep track of prices on desired items on Amazon. Therefore, shoppers can save lots of money by getting better deals through the Honey app.
What Does Honey Help You Do?
Without Honey, shoppers have to go through a lot of hustle to get a discount coupon for a product they are buying. The process involves digging through several web pages looking for the best coupon deals.
And with thousands of online stores and thousands of coupon codes, that can be quite time-consuming. In fact, buyers might give up the purchase altogether when it turns out they don’t have enough time on their hands to look for coupon deals.
But Honey does all this for them automatically. It is not even necessary to open another page once they are on the checkout page requiring the use of a discount coupon. Honey simply does the search for them.
It even goes a step further and ensures that it finds the discount coupons with the greatest discount offers. It will even combine coupons where that is a possibility so that shoppers can make greater savings. Therefore, Honey turns a process that typically takes several minutes into an automatic process that requires ten or twenty seconds.
How Does It Help You Save Money on Amazon as Well?
Amazon, unlike retail giants like Macy’s, WalMart and Target, is not on board as far as getting into a deal with Honey goes. The retailers mentioned above, and thousands others, are giving Honey commissions for the sales it delivers. Still, Amazon shoppers have something to reap from using the app as it can be used to inform users of great Amazon deals.
The price tracking feature is called Droplist, and the user has to program it to keep track of a certain item’s price on Amazon. The giant retailer has been adamant to enter into a partnership with Honey. Still, users of this shopping site benefit immensely from the Honey app. Amazon is responsible for 37% of all the e-commerce sales in the US.
What Do People Say About Honey App?
According to many people, Honey is a great app for three major reasons – it saves money, it saves time, and it does not impose too many demands on the users. Once the user downloads the app, they can use it to find deals in seconds and then save themselves lots of money.
The fact that it supports over 20,000 merchants is also a plus because many people have found the app useful across a broad range of shopping sites.
The general consensus among users is that Honey is a way to get free money while you shop; and with its hundreds of millions of dollars in savings so far, that claim is defensible.
The Future of Honey
From the look of things, Honey is doing great. The two co-founders have even admitted that the start-up is profitable, although they won’t say to what extent. The company is even boosting its staff from an initial crew of 30 at the start of the year to a projected 150 employees in the near future.
What remains a concern for Honey creators is that Amazon is expected to take up a large proportion of the market in future, becoming responsible for 50% of these sales in the US. So, unless Honey strikes a deal with Amazon, this will be a problem since the giant retailer will be eating into the market shares of the retailers who have already partnered with Honey.
“In general, the Honey app has become a darling among shoppers for one simple reason –
it helps them save money”, says savings expert Ian Jason of coupon site Fitij.com. Five million users now enjoy substantial savings by using the app. In fact, statistics indicate that Honey saves each of its customers an average of $32 per month. Some shoppers have saved several thousand dollars when using the app.
