Wahanda US MobDeals launch in Four Cities: NY – LA – SF – SiliconValley

Today we officially launch our city specific MobDeals in four cities in the US. 

We have everything from: private personal training sessions in New York, an anti-aging and skin repair treatment at an exclusive spa in Malibu, just outside LA, to beginner salsa lessons in San Francisco and an amazing one-hour massage + manicure at an AVEDA spa in San Mateo – located conveniently to both SF & Silicon Valley.  We would love it if you can spread the word – its our first week, and lots more good stuff to come.  If the deals tip, our engineer Oli will do his famous MobDeal dance. Any feedback, please send us an email at smile [at] wahanda [dot] com.

Click here for the New York City MobDeal

Click here for the Los Angeles MobDeal

Click here for the San Francisco MobDeal

Click here for the Silicon Valley MobDeal

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Spa Locator: Wahanda collaboration with iVillage

I am very proud to see our first Wahanda integration with iVillage:  the Spa Days & Salon Locator

Hopefully the first of many widget & content integrations as we look to bring our deals & offers to iVillage’s user base.

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Hiring: Sales & Account Managers at Wahanda

Sales & Account Managers – Central London / Manchester / Birmingham

Wahanda (www.wahanda.com)

Competitive base salary + significant commission upside
“ELLE names Wahanda as one of the Best Online Beauty Sites”

THE ROLE IN A NUTSHELL

We’re looking for someone who can use a mix of ingenuity, persistence, and sales prowess to build and manage on-going relationships with spas, salons, studios, gyms, yoga studios and everything in between.  You will be the face of Wahanda to our partners and will work introduce businesses to Wahanda, help them promote their services and negotiate unbeatable offers on behalf of Wahanda’s consumers.  For example, check out our cool Wahanda MobDeal

If you are passionate about health & beauty, love building and managing relationships and are an experienced account manager this could be the dream role. You will be part of a great team and have the ability to learn from very experienced professionals who are also excited to learn from you! You’ll be helping to set the direction of the company and work at a high level, so it’s also a great chance to prove your leadership skills.

Regular spa treatments and frequent pampering may be required!

If you think you are the right person for the job then we want to hear from you. Drop us an email with your CV to: jobs@wahanda.com

WHAT IS A WAHANDA?

Wahanda is an ambitious start-up developing an e-commerce, content and community marketplace for health, beauty & wellness. Founded by veterans of lastminute.com and Yahoo!, Wahanda is looking to revolutionise the way consumers search and book health & beauty treatments by connecting customers with businesses and professionals.  Wahanda’s investors include the technology team who built Skype, the investors behind last.fm and a former worldwide director of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

THE NITTY GRITTY

We need someone to help develop our relationship with wellness businesses (salons, spas, fitness centres) across the UK and to help them grow their business by using the tools and capabilities that Wahanda offers. There are thousands of potential partners out there and you will be responsible for:

· Sourcing new suppliers by actively contacting potential suppliers including being comfortable with cold-calling

· Ability to research and target businesses in cities nationwide, discovering new opportunities

· Manage relationship with on-going suppliers in order to maintain current range and sales on products

· Set up suppliers on Wahanda extranet system and assist in training and use

· Ensure that all offers and products are loaded in a timely, accurate and professional manner with help from relevant teams

· Working closely with site management team and Sales Director to ensure all products are merchandised and marketed correctly

· Run regular sales and supplier reports and ensure these are provided accurately and promptly

· Liaise with all departments to ensure processes run smoothly, act as an interface between finance, tech, customer services and marketing

· Learn about wahanda.com customer demographic and use this to enhance the range of products, in particular inspirational product at unbeatable prices

· Undertake competitor analysis, in order for us to remain competitive in the marketplace

· Ensuring smooth operational running of all promotions

· Meet and exceed sales and margin targets

WHO YOU WOULD BE WORKING WITH:

The successful candidate will be the voice of the supplier and as such will:

· The role reports directly to the Head of Supply

· Work closely with the founders and technology team to ensure that the site is supporting the needs of our partners.

· Work with the site team to ensure that we are promoting and merchandising the products in the most effective way possible.

· Work with the finance and operations departments to ensure that the sales process is running smoothly.

WHAT WE WILL BE LOOKING FOR:

The basics:

· The ideal candidate would have at least 1-2 years experience in a head office environment as an account executive / account manager

· Relationship development experience

· Highly organised

· Excellent communication and presentation skills

· Excellent negotiation skills

· Comfortable and confident with technology

· Commercial account experience

· Sound commercial sense and highly numerate, with good analytical skills

· Excellent MS office skills, especially MS Excel

· Strong academic background with excellent written and verbal communication skills

The soft stuff:

· A passion for the web and the potential of e-commerce

· A genuine passion for the spa and wellness industry

· Thorough and meticulous with extreme attention to detail

· Ability to work independently with little day to day guidance

· Proactive team player

· Self motivated, uses initiative and problem solver

· Work to tight deadlines with a can do attitude

· Willingness to go beyond the call of duty to get the job done

· Good sense of humour and outgoing personality

· Good organisational skills

NEXT STEPS

If you think you are the right person for the job then we want to hear from you. Drop us an email with your CV to: jobs@wahanda.com

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The power of Wahanda’s MobDeal – Our partners get a ton of exposure when they are on Wahanda

Seeing this brought a big smile to my face.  Today’s Wahanda London MobDeal was for a new dance, yoga, Pilates & martial arts studio in London called Vital Body where we offered any 10 classes for only £10.

Not only did we have  a strong sales response, but Vital Body received such strong exposure that they saw a strong traffic spike and also added more classes.  See their Facebook updates below.  Very cool

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Wahanda mention in the Sunday Times – How we help businesses

I was very glad to see Wahanda mentioned in the Sunday Times Business section today about how we have continued to adapt our proposition for our business partners – spas, salons, clinics, gyms, etc – to increase their exposure and help them get more customers.

Some quotes below and a link to the article from the Times below:

“…Wahanda.com, a website that lists health and beauty practitioners by type and location across the country, from beauty salons and spas to individual therapists. He started the business in 2008 and takes a commission on anything that is bought through the site.

After talking to his clients, however, he discovered that while they liked being listed on the site, many of them would prefer to sell some of their more complex products such as laser eye surgery and skin treatments to their customers in person rather than through a website.  Mitha realised the solution was to allow salons and practitioners to offer free consultations and day passes on the website to get customers to visit them in person. He launched this service in October, charging salons £30 a month.

“We found that a lot of people don’t feel comfortable purchasing a gym membership or laser eye surgery on a website so we introduced free consultations. We saw that these businesses were having a hard time getting customers through the door so we introduced the facility to offer a free skin consultation and so on. It gives customers more information before they make a decision.”

The introduction of the service has worked well, said Mitha. “It has been amazingly successful because it has made it easier for our partners to attract people. Sometimes they like the ability to sell things but some of them just want to get customers through the door to be able to sell on their terms. It has made it really simple for them.”

Add Some Sparkle to your Sales – Times Online

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What does Wahanda mean?

One of the most common questions we get is what does Wahanda actually mean, and where did we come up with the name?

Wahanda actually means "Great spirit and creator god", and is of Native American (Indian) Origin. Here is a list of Native American Deities which was the source of inspiration in the naming of our site.

We wanted an inspirational name that fit with what we are trying to build – a comprehensive resource for all things wellness, which includes spas, salons, gyms, yoga, Pilates, personal training, holistic & alternative therapies, nutrition and more.  We didn’t want the words "spa" or "beauty" or "lush" in the name, nor did we want to have the site feel exclusive, closed or something just for women.  We believe wellness is for everyone – whether you are young or old, male or female, and at any income level. 

We think everyone wants to be happier, live better and look & feel younger, so we are trying to bring all of this online so that users can find information, share & learn from the collective experience of others, and connect with the businesses and professionals that can help them with this wellness promise through special deals & offers.  Hence our tagline: "Health, Beauty, Happiness". 

And coming full circle, we think the name embodies the spirit & passion we have for creating this marketplace, or ecosystem, that connects consumers with businesses and professionals (see the ecosystem slide below). Just felt the need to put this down in writing.

Click here to download:

image001.emz (78 KB)

Click here to download:

oledata.mso (37 KB)

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Wahanda going to Croatia to give keynote address at SIBEC – Health, Fitness and Leisure conference

Lopo & I are travelling to Split, Croatia to attend the SIBEC health, fitness & leisure conference where we will be giving the keynote address on behalf of Wahanda and also meeting with companies from all over Europe and the world.

The conference is being held at the Le Meridien Lav, Split, where there is also a lovely spa, which hopefully we will get to check out.

“Wahanda is a Native American word for “great spirit and creator”.
This certainly sums up the energy and passion that Salim Mitha and Lopo Champalimaud have for health, beauty and happiness.”

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The Wahanda Christmas Reindeer – is it too early for Christmas & Holiday promotions?

Pictured: our singing, dancing & flashing Wahanda Reindeer on top of a lovely Wahanda Spa & Wellness Gift Voucher
Its a few days early to break it out, but @Judy_Jay insists Christmas starts Oct 1st. I personally prefer to enjoy the Autumn

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Fordham Soho Hair Salon – Newest Place you can use a Wahanda Spa Salon & Fitness Voucher

The very cool and stylish Fordham Soho has joined the Wahanda network of over 350 places (and growing) that you can use the Wahanda Spa, Salon & Fitness Voucher. The owner Sean was kind enough to put up the Wahanda Voucher “accepted here” sticker in his window, which looks great and matches their colour scheme.

I have actually been to Fordham twice now to have my haircut, and my stylist Adam is just fantastic.  I am recommending him to all my male & female friends because he is that good, and super-friendly and has great intuition.  Read my reviews of Fordham Soho on Wahanda.

Check the place out and I think you will agree it’s a great little find, and very centrally located in the heart of Soho, on Greek Street.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Free offers for Laser Eye Surgery and £10 online voucher gift from Wahanda for spa days, fitness & more

In addition to all of our other free offers in the spa, fitness and wellness space, we are now really proud to be working with the London Vision Clinic who are offering their free UK Guide to Laser Eye Surgery as well as a free consultation.  This is our first foray into the laser eye surgery space, so we are excited to be breaking new ground.

Sign up for a free consultation at London Vision Clinic if you have wondered if laser eye surgery if for you.

As a little celebratory gift, for the first 25 people who sign up for the offer, we at Wahanda will give you a £10 online credit for any purchase from our online Wahanda Spa & Wellness Store. 

Our goal at Wahanda is to help everyone look & feel better, from the inside-out and the outside-in, so expect to see a lot more great deals and offers soon!

 

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