1SaleADay: 350,000 Daily Visitors And Counting

In the battle for deal-a-day supremacy, Groupon and LivingSocial (backed by Amazon

) have reigned supreme. They've ruled

, piqued consumer interest, and (in the case of Groupon)

a multi-billion-dollar

from Google

. But as great as Groupon and LivingSocial are, there's one thing the two firms don't have: inventory. That's what sets

apart from the competition. “We offer one item in five different categories, and that one item is always offered at a remarkable discounted price, generally anywhere from 80% to 95% off,” Ben Federman, Founder and CEO of 1SaleADay.com, told Benzinga during a recent interview. Full Interview:

Federman, who founded 1SaleADay.com at the age of 23, said that the site receives about 350,000 daily visitors “who come to see the deal we're offering on that particular day.” That deal comes from the company's ability to undercut the biggest retailers and discounters in the country. “Because they're [other retailers] buying 1,000 or 500 of one item in multiple different categories, and we're buying 10,000 piece of one item, or 5,000 depending on what the item is, and we're literally closing out the entire line,” Federman said. “With that we're able to offer a much, much more competitive price.” But make no mistake: the competitive price is only one reason why shoppers support 1SaleADay.com. Ultimately, they return because they trust the site to deliver on its promise. “What sets us apart from all the other sites is that we follow the integrity of the day-to-day deal,” Federman insists. “We never say, ‘let's take an item today, since we have 350,000 people, and mark it up $5 or $10' – we just don't do that. Everything has to be at the best offered price.” In other words, Federman says that he is essentially pushing the wholesale cost onto the customer “with a very small markup, and people love it.” Some days, 1SaleADay.com is even willing to take a loss. “We see the greater picture and understand what it takes to have the trust of a loyal following,” Federman said. “We make sure that every single item, whether it's a freebie, whether they're getting it just to promote the site, or whether they're actually paying for it, it's the best price they've seen or experienced for that particular item.” “Sometimes,” Federman adds, “we'd buy a $35 item and sell it for $29 or even $19.” If you think that's an impressive business plan, then get this: 1SaleADay.com started in Federman's living room. “I was working in web sales and trying to see how you can offer customers electronics and useful gadgets,” Federman revealed. “It was about four years ago. I was a sales rep, I wasn't a buyer. [But] we were able to sell specific items and buy, let's say 50 or a few hundred of one specific item.” At that time, Federman began to wonder: “What if we just offered one specific item? We can come to manufacturers and say, ‘We're able to move 30 to 40 times what anybody else can move,' [and] they would be more inclined to give us a better deal.” From there, 1SaleADay.com was born. “I decided that instead of putting all our money into Google

or Yahoo!

, we're gonna give that money to [the] customers,” Federman said. “So the first six months to possibly a year and a half, we made sure not to make money on an item. So we'd buy an item and sell it below cost so there was no way anyone could beat that price, which is below wholesale price. With that we had the best price out there. We gained our customer following as well.” To hear more from 1SaleADay's chief executive, don't miss Benzinga's

with Ben Federman.