In class a few weeks ago, Professor Brown began talking about the issue of price and how it relates to internet technology. One of the main qualities he mentioned was the conecpt of price transparency, which is the use of search and shopping bots to compare prices on the internet. This feature of the internet came in very handy for me just this past weekened...
I went home this past weekend to Massachusetts for the first time since Christmas break and because it had been so long, I had not seen my parents for my birthday. While home I got to pick out my birthday gift, which was a new digital camera. Unfortunately for me, I know very little about cameras and what I want from them and there are hundreds to choose from. I was overwhelmed. Luckily, we had just recently discuessed this topic in class.
Knowing that there was such a thing as a price comparison bot on the internet, I got online and began searching. I came across the website www.bizrate.com where they specialize in comparing prices and other features of numerous different products, including digital cameras (they even have their own specific website for the digital camera comparissions). Although my dad helped me pick out the best qualities to look for in a camera on the website, it still helped to narrow down my choices. The website made it possible for me to sort cameras by price, resolution, brand name, type of camera, and many other features.
At the end of the search session I came up with one camera that both me and my parents liked, which was the Cannon Powershot SD800 IS and I love it. The bottom line is that I went on to this website with no idea as to what camera I was looking for and by the time I got off-line I not only had an idea, I knew the exact camera I wanted and the best locations to buy it (which is another feature of the website). There is no doubt that going to this website assisted me in my camera purchasing process. Plus, using the bizrate website probably saved my hours and hours of going to various stores and looking through the cameras they have, and to top it off the service was free!
In class we also discuessed how many websites are blocking these search bots from crawling their website, which to me makes absolutly no sense. While I was on the bizrate page I was looking for a camera, but I was also looking at who had the best prices. If a retailers page is blocked then their price will not be listed and then people will not buy from them. To me it just makes sense to let all search engines crawl your webpage to help get your name out there. There could have been a website out there that was selling my camera for less than I found but chose not to participate in bizrates search results and because of this, they lost my business. In general, I feel that these search bots are extremely helpful through their easy of usem, the large ammounts of information they contain, and their time saving qualities. For a website to not participate is just stupid, just as it is stupid for someone to not use one when making their next big purchase.
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3 comments:
Andrea, you made some good points as usual. You were supposed to use the DealCatcher website though not their competitor...just kidding. I did not know about these types of websites until learning about it in class. That also means that I have never used them before. I am glad you got to test one out and it ended up working great for you. It is good to know that it is so quick and easy to use. I do not know a lot about digital cameras either and my dad did all the research for me when he bought me one. I am sure he just looked at newspaper ads and maybe consumer reports. Having a website that sets it out so precisely would have greatly benefited his search and made it a lot easier. I also do not understand why companies and websites do not want their discounts to be put on these kinds of sites. It was mentioned that they do not want consumers to start to just buy on discount and not on retail price, but I think that a discounted sale is better than no sale at all. Something is always better than nothing. I think those nonparticipating websites and companies should change their minds.
Andrea,
You made a great call on getting that Canon. I've worked at Best Buy (gag me) during christmas break the last 2 or 3 years selling digital cameras. And that series of Canon is one of the best models out there!
Shopping bots are a reallly cool thing. Google has a fantastic search engine for pricing for items like this. It used to be called "froogle" but for branding purposes they've recently renamed it Google Product Search. You can see it here: http://www.google.com/prdhp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wf&q=
I also agree with you, I don't really understand why websites wouldn't want bots crawling their websites. Unless they just have insanely high prices I guess and they don't want to be compared to the cheaper places.
Anyways, great and very detailed post!
Response to Kathleen: Its funny that right after DealCatcher came in is when I went to get my camera. I actually thought of going to their website but they do not have comparisons which is what I was looking for. I suppose that it would have been beneficial to me if I went on their site and checked to see if they had any coupons for the camera I was interested in. You also mentioned consumer reports, which is basically the same thing as the website I went to. We had that at my house too but the issue on cameras was a little out dated so I opted for the internet. Overall, there are tons of different ways to compare features and prices and any one of them probably work great! I definitely suggest the internet though :)
Response to Joel: Haha its good to know that I made the right choice, thanks for that! Also, when I was on the internet looking for comparison sites I did not have a particular one in mind, I just googled it really, and when I did Froogle was one of the ones that popped up. For some reason I did not even click on it but I did remember talking about it in class (plus the name is catchy). I really couldnt tell you why I chose bizrate instead but in the end it all worked out. Also, I didnt actually buy the camera online so I guess it really didnt matter which site I went to because no one got any profits from my sale. I guess I kinda cheated the system, whoops.
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