|
|
Invasion
of the Bots
On-line
shopping assistance
Can they deliver the savings?
|
Having
to shop on-line can take time just like fighting the crowds in
search bargains. Sure you don’t get fun of jostling crowds
and flying appendages characteristic of busy stores, nor the fun
of waiting in never ending lines not seen since Orientation week.
But on-line shopping can have its challenges as well.
Of
course, the actual price of the item is likely going to be a factor.
To assist you there are a number of bots that help you compare
prices without having to search every site individually or run
from store to store in search of the best deal. You simply type
in the name of the product that you want to compare prices on
and it comes up with a list of all the merchants that are selling
that item and the price that they are charging.
The
drawback is that many of these bots are geared toward comparing
prices of U.S. merchants, leaving the Canadian shopper with fewer
listings in their shopping bots. Still they provide a useful tool
in gauging approximate prices as well as product features and
opinions.
Another
thing to remember about bots is that they may not carry all the
merchants that you want to check prices for. In addition you should
also know that some merchants pay to have a preferred spot on
the merchant list. A good bot will let you know this up front.
Best to use a bot that lets you sort the results of your search
by price.
Is it your bot getting you the best price?
Some
shopping bots search many more merchants than others. Thus bots
that search 50 to 100 different merchants are likely to get you
a better price than bots that only search 4 or 5. We found that
some US. bots search 30 - 50 plus merchants within certain categories
(i.e. home electronics), whereas the Canadian bots tend to search
4 to 7 or less.
Bots
also tend to search some of the larger stores, meaning you still
may get the best deal at a smaller local store (that isn’t
in the bot search engine), than at the one that pops up on the
shopping bot. In addition if you are shopping for an item like
a computer you may find that the slightly higher local store price
may be worth it if you get on-going convenient service on your
purchase. On other items like a camera, MP3 player, etc., the
lowest price may be what matters most.
If
you want to buy from the local retailer you may still want to
use the shopping bot as an aid to save. Do a search on the item
that you wish to compare prices on. Save and print the results
listing the best prices and then armed with these results approach
the local merchant to see if they are willing to beat, meet (or
come close to meeting) your best price. If it is an on-line merchant’s
price they are trying to meet the local retailer will likely take
into account what you would have paid in shipping. As the economy
is weaker this year, you may find that retailers, hungry for sales
and thus willing to meet these prices.
Bot
tend to be good in some stores and not so good in others. Just
like when we’re young and single we probably wouldn’t
be the best person to ask about picking out baby furniture, bots
are better at comparing some products than others. For example
comparing products with particular model number or title such
as a Discman or DVD tend to be a strength of shopping bots while
they tend to fall short on items like fashion items or accessories.
To get the most benefit try and enter as specific of information
as possible in your search query.
Who’s doing the shopping for you?
There
are a number of different free bot services out there to assist
you in your search. Some are better than others. Unfortunately
there are more bots combing the stores in the U.S. than in Canada
so your choices are limited. Some bots are better than others
when it comes to number of stores they shops as well as the amount
of additional information it provides on these stores and products.
Some of the better ones are:
www.cornocopia.com
A site that offers a Canadian Shopping bot. While not offering
the same number of merchant comparisons as similar U.S. engines,
the shopping bot does offer some good Canadian choices with
this downloadable and easy to use tool. The basic download is
free with a more “exotic” bot for the hard core shopper
is available for a fee.
http://buybuddy.sympatico.ca
A Canadian site that lets you compare prices at various merchants.
Most of the merchants compared however were U.S. based. The
site does offer some product reviews in addition to listing
prices in Canadian currency.
www.bizrate.com
A U.S. site that provides ratings of U.S. merchants and offers
price comparisons on a variety of products, along with merchants
offering free shipping in the U.S. and internationally. Lets
you sort by price.
www.mysimon.com
A U.S. site that provides price comparisons as well as merchant
reviews, and store policies ie returns, payment methods, etc.
Lets you sort by price
www.dealtime.com
A U.S. site that provides price comparisons in addition to rankings
of stores based on customer reviews. Lets you sort by price.
Of course, if you love the rush of adrenaline that comes from
the mad holiday rush of shopping, the on-line experience may not
be for you. However using the Internet and bots for price comparisons
and product descriptions may help you secure the best deal at
your favourite brick and mortar store. Choose your bots carefully
and pay attention to their comparison methods and features to
get the most out of them.
|
