Thomas J. Vosper | Retail Director at Pricesearcher

In this part one of a two-part interview series, Thomas sat down with Wayne and shared with us: - How his career journey in e-commerce retail began 12 years ago at Amazon UK - What it was like early on spending 7 years at Amazon UK building Marketplace at a time when nobody wants to buy shoes from Amazon, in the early days before Amazon had fulfilment, advertising and payments; how he then moved on to British retail giant Tesco - How his present startup company Pricesearcher is taking on e-commerce giants Google and Amazon - How Pricesearcher emulates (late 90s era) Google to index world’s prices all in one place and reach out to merchants to ensure it is not just a paid for environment* for past 3 years - How they started with just 6 test retailers in UK 3 years ago and grew it to 10,000 retailers now on their side - What a day in his startup life looks like ie. starting with conversations with people, ranging from big thinkers to smaller sellers and retailers How their tightly knit team of 25 people in London punched above their weight and status as the “underdog” search engine ; how they are always judged and compared to trillion-dollar businesses Google and Amazon - What resonates with him most of the time are the “underdog” mom and pop shop businesses eg. businesses selling DVDs; what types of businesses inspired him nowadays are people who sell nothing but door handles and are special in what they do eg. offering 100,000 types of door handles; Why he loves giving those guys equal footing with the biggest retailers, with no commercials appearing next on their site** - Why he thinks his best self is free from restrictions and being comfortable in his own skin, sticking up for underdogs and thinking the best of people; more rewarding to think that most people are ok and give them a platform to do the best they can; a layer of thinking that we tend to judge people from their actions whereas we judge ourselves by our intention - Why he thinks his beard and tattoos are also some of the best compliments he has ever received - What is the best mindset for business or career or life eg. stuff doesn’t have to be polarising in whatever role in business; the only way to perform the role well is to be as honest as possible, as long as intent is right and people don’t keep making same mistake, and empathise what they want to achieve and enable that - What the biggest challenge for Pricesearcher is eg. get judged with the big boys with trillion dollar businesses - What the state of the industry is and how Pricesearcher benefit buyers and consumers who want to see every product and not just the Top 10 bestsellers; consumers may not just want to see the cheapest offer that is most popular but a brand that they trust or they prefer a retailer that offers immediate pickups closer to their home locations; how Pricesearcher stood out in an industry where price comparison website existed since relics of internet, with some sites offering 30 million products, compared to Pricesearcher’s 2.4 billion products, from door knobs to Gucci handbags, with commercial element removed, and achieving these remarkable results in less than 3 years, now operating in 24 counties *not just a paid for environment - pls refer to episode part 2 for latest updates on this strategy **with no commercials appearing next on their site** - pls refer to episode part 2 for latest updates on this strategy