For the past several years, large established stores have had the upper hand in online trade when compared to mom-and-pop retailers, since online shoppers are skeptical of interacting with traders unknown to them. To enhance the profiles of lesser-known retailers, http://www.pricefight.com/ (an Austin, Texas-based shopping site) will soon display the following on every product page: the logos of retailers, their security policies, and customer service information.
Conventional search engines offer only comparative-shopping, based on the price of the products provided by various online retailers. But, PriceFight also shows a comparison in terms of a parameter that it calls “People’s Choice”, a merchant ranking based on a proprietary algorithm. This parameter includes factors such as customer service and the number of purchases by the PriceFight customer base.
PriceFight does not charge retailers based on the number of clicks but per acquisition. No start-up fee is levied for retailers wanting to include their inventory in the PriceFight search. To aid emerging retailers in gaining consumer trust, PriceFight also does not charge any fee for displaying their logos, special offers, and ad copies along with their product feed.
Quite an interesting move and the market also looks quite open, interesting and challenging as well.