Pete Wakim, Head of Business Development @ Quidco Interview

Founded in 2005, Quidco is nearing its 5 year celebrations as leading cashback website in the UK. What would you say are Quidco’s stand out achievements during this time?

Quidco has grown considerably since it was set up five years ago. In that time we have saved our members a massive £55m and generated more than £500m in sales for the retailers that are listed on our site. We’ve firmly established ourselves as the UK’s favourite cashback website; we currently have almost 750,000 members and nearly 50% market share.

You’ve recently undertaken a new design of the Quidco interface. Why did you decide on a new design and what does it offer to retailers that the old site didn’t?

The number of retailers and deals on our site have increased over the years, so we’ve redesigned the site to make it more user-friendly for our members and to allow more prominent promotion of some of the great deals on offer. For example, we promote the best deal of the day as well as exclusive and other ‘hot offers’ on the home page. That’s in addition to banner ads and promotional tools such as the ‘Quidblog’ where we also highlight great deals.

What does the future hold for the cashback and loyalty sector?

The cashback sector has enjoyed rapid growth, but it’s still one of the best-kept retail secrets, so there’s huge potential to encourage more consumers to shop in this way. Our mission is to offer our members the very best deals, whatever they’re buying - so we’ll continue to look at ways of developing the site to do just that.

Any plans to go mobile?

It’s certainly something we’re interested in. Many businesses have developed apps, but we want to make sure that anything that we produce is not a fad or a gimmick, and produces maximum results for members and retailers. Texting the latest deals to members is another possible route.

How much has the introduction of voucher codes helped / hindered the cashback model?

Some merchants are happy to allow us to offer our members vouchers in conjunction with cashback, although others are less keen on the direct discounting approach. We work closely with the retailers to establish what works best for them as well as our members.

There has been a lot of ongoing discussion about multi channel attribution and changing the last click wins model. Are you concerned about this potential shift? Won't this pave the way for you to become a network in your own right?

The last click wins model is similar to someone walking down the high street looking for a holiday, visiting three travel agencies but only buying from the last one. The first two may also have advertised the holiday and been paid an advertising fee for doing so, but don’t get a cut of the commission for the sale. Ideally, all parties need to be rewarded for what they do without compromising the CPA model.

iPad – your thoughts?

Hmmm, I may be wrong but my personal view is - too small as a laptop, too big as a phone......Sorry, Steve Jobs but you know I am right!