Next Generation Shopping

For as long as I can remember, deal/bargain sites like DealCatcher, and comparison shopping sites, like PriceGrabber, remained separate entities. Being a true online bargain hunter meant monitoring deal sites like a cop visits Dunkin Donuts. Shopping comparison engines were only used when neccessary. Over time, as comparison engines matured, it became apparent how closely a match deal sites and shopping comparison sites were for each other. Every major deal site began to partner with a shopping comparison engine, namely PriceGrabber. See for yourself all the PriceGrabber co-brands that have popped up over the years… TechBargains, DealCatcher, Got|Apex, and numerous others, all have PriceGrabber co-brand partners.

While having a co-brand is a step up from completely sending your hard-earned visitor away from your site completely, it is still very limiting. For the first time, with the recent development of the e-commerce APIs and the Web 2.0 transition, the opportunity exists to blend the two, leaving the end-user, the consumer, relying on only one site.

Watch out deal sites, the future is here…

The original concept behind SecretPrices.com was to fully integrate deal and coupon information into price comparison listings to ensure the consumer knows how to receive the lowest price. While the technology is still in its infant stages, I am proud to announce we are one step closer to fully achieving this! Product deals whether as simple as a product price drop, or as complex as combing a collection of rebates, coupons, or other promotional discounts, have been integrated directly into the product page listings of SecretPrices.com (view deals section here).

An example “product deal” can be seen on the Hitachi MD6GB-BP 6 GB Hard Drive product page. First, take a minute and view this product on a Price Comparison engine (eg. Shopping.com or PriceGrabber)… You’ll see the lowest price from J&R, offering it for $169.99 on Shopping.com, and $159.99 from ZipZoomFly on PriceGrabber (not including StoreFront offerings). What it doesn’t tell you is that Dell is offering the same product for $179.99 with a $50 rebate. Oh yeah, and Dell also has a $20 coupon code until mid-April. Put the savings together and that is $70 off (dropping the price to about $110), a full $50 cheaper than the lowest price on a comparison engine listing. Doesn’t it give you a good feeling knowing all that?

How does the consumer benefit?

Comparison shopping is popular because it saves people time and effort from “site-hopping” to check prices. It’s no secret that savvy-bargain hunters still look further for coupons, rebates or other discounts. This means still having to site hop, producing extra work and extra time for the user.

We see coupons, rebates and other promotional discounts as critical information to the future of comparison shopping for consumers. That is why we are working hard to seamlessly integrate coupon, auto discounts, rebate and other price varying information inline with a product page. This involves connecting coupon, rebate and other promotional information from a merchant to a product offering of that merchant in an intelligent manner. Why do all this? Increased savings, less site-hopping, less clicking around, just to name a few.

How do the merchants benefit who are offering coupons, rebates, and/or promotional discounts?
Everything comes full circle. It is not a good business model if the merchant doesn’t benefit. Our studies have shown that these promotional factors help to increase converation ration of consumer purchases for the merchant. The consumer is more likely to make a purchase because of the following factors:

• Incentive. The concept of the coupon has been around for ages. The consumer is more likely to buy knowing that he/she will be saving money with a coupon or get money back with a rebate.
• Impulse. The time limit set by the limited quantities, expiration dates, and other factors creates an environment in which the consumer must act quickly.
• Price. If it becomes better than the competitor’s price, that’s an obvious one.

Conclusion and Opinions

Thanks to Shopping.com and Amazon.com web services, in conjunction with our internal database, and the technology we have created, consumers everywhere can now save time and money. Consumers now have the opportunity to quickly and easily browse deals, compare prices, and read reviews, all on the same product page. You may refer to it as just another e-commerce “mashup”, but it has been an idea long in the works.

If you are not a certified bargain hunter, you can shop normally and not be left out in the cold. Whether you are one of hard-core deal fanatics, a real Woot! lover, or just a regular online shopper, then send some feedback and tell me what you think of our site combining deals and shopping comparison.

Technorati Tags: shopping comparison, price comparison, deals, bargains, coupons, e-commerce, mashup, Web 2.0, AWS, Amazon, Shopping.com, DealCatcher, TechBargains, Woot

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