Change the Way The World Shops

We started Purple Dot to change how things are bought and sold – in a way that’s completely diffrent. It’s better for merchants, shoppers, and the overall sustainability of consumerism.

Shopping is broken

In 2019, we became obsessed with the simple notion of buying and selling. It’s something we experience every day but the idea that things have just one price seemed so narrow.

We kept seeing stories in the press of remnant inventory being burned or buried and businesses going under because their margins had been erroded with deep discounts.

Today, when you're shopping, there's one price for an item – you either pay the one price shown and get the item, or you walk. It's very binary. Actually it’s a bit boring. And it’s not working. When you do walk, the item typically goes through a cascade of discounting, becomes unprofitable for the merchant and often still ends up in landfill. All the while, the mercant spends a lot of money with Google on Facebook on ads to try to get you back.

We knew there had to be a better way.

Meet the founders

Madeline Parra / Co-founder

John Talbott / Co-founder

Why not have two prices?

When thinking about pricing we remembered a shopping habit from when we were young. Our Grandmothers would visit a store and, if an item were too expensive, they’d ask the clerk to call them if went on sale. The clerk would take down their name in their sales-waitlist-book.

This shows that the shopper wants the item, is prepared to wait for a discount and happy to take a risk that they won’t get it at all. For the merchant, they keep selling at full price, but know they’ve got a list of shoppers in their book ready to buy at a discount.

This was the inspiration for Purple Dot, but we tweaked it a little. We realised that it’s important for both merchant and shopper to decide the second price up front. The shopper can then make clear choice, buy it now at full price or pay the discounted Purple Dot Price and wait 7-14 days to find out if they got it. We wanted to bring it to life as simpy as possible so that any merchant can get going right away.See how it works

Try it, risk free

If you’re a merchant, it’s time to think different about discounting. If you’re a shopper then give the Purple Dot Store.