Every so often I spend my time on weekend browsing the web, looking for exciting local content which is interactive and different and perhaps offers freebies.  

Well, today I didn’t find that, but I did find a website whose offerings come close enough to the true sale criteria. The site, www.wellnessguide.co.za (Wellness Guide) is a national directory for the wellness and spa industry, featuring various well known and lesser known day spas, beauty clinics, dance studios, consultancies, etc. The site is moderately interactive, allowing you to search for treatments by area and so on. Its functionality is quite impressive when it comes to purchasing treatment vouchers from participating establishments. From an efficient internet shopper’s perspective, it is not ideal, having to do price and offerings comparisons by clicking back and forward on the various places, however, I feel this adds to the overall charm of the site as a lovely and practical concept which has plenty of room for refining. But that is not what excites me. There is a sale section which provides a list of day spas and beauty salons offering half price, limited quantity specials on a comprehensive variety of treatments, including full day packages, 2 person retreats, corporate massages, yoga, Reiki, reflexology, acupuncture, lodge escapes, Feng Shui consulting, astrology—the list goes on. And these are true limited quantity offerings…the big red “sold outs” and qty remaining indicators are there to stir up the bargain hunter, impulse mentality.  

The aspect that impresses me the most was not the comprehensive nature of the of sale items but rather that the list was not restricted to (as these South African sites are usually) a couple of little known, off the beaten track day spas looking to establish some sort of a presence and clientele base by offering so called, “half price treatments”.  Places like Mangwanani, The Grace, Shamwari, Zorgvliet, to name a few, had offerings and were willing to buy into the concept. And the sale items are truly national…which leads me to my point. In future, when I am looking for a high value, impressive wellness gift to give and don’t quite have the budget to suit... www.wellnesguide.co.za/sale.asp ...could be a fantastic money saver!