Comparison Shopping

This morning while having my morning coffee and watching FOX News, I saw a segment about comparison-shopping. The segment was talking about how this was the ‘latest craze’ on the internet. Where have they been?

One of the really neat things about the internet is that more and more business partnerships and affiliations are popping up all over the place. Although this is old news to veteran internet surfers, this is finally making its way into the mainstream news! Finally, sites like ours and many, many others get the recognition they deserve.

Through partnerships and affiliations many businesses are made possible today. With the downsizing of corporate America many more people are starting their own business. The ability to offer comparison-shopping on our web site is a huge benefit to me, a business owner, as well as to you the customer. Business as well as residential consumers all benefit. Generally speaking, when you come across a site that offers comparison-shopping you get a price as good as or better than if you went right to the vendors themselves. In addition, at least on our site, there are additional perks by purchasing your items through a comparison-shopping site. Unbiased product or service information, cash rebates, free shipping, another level of product support, etc.

If you were looking for a television, stereo, DVD, CD, etc. would you shop around? What about big-ticket items like home appliances, cars and even houses? Sure you would. You’d want the best price, quality and service you could find. You’re a smart shopper.

Comparison-shopping has been going on ever since commerce began! Just because there’s now an E (for electronic) placed before the commerce (e-commerce) shouldn’t make any difference at all. Ok, there is a one BIG difference. You can comparison shop from the comfort of your own home. No longer is it necessary to drive around to all the different stores, remember or write down the price, perks, warranty information and on and on for each product or service you’re looking for.

Ok, so you’ve found a site and are considering a purchase. The little voice inside warns you about going through with it. You don’t know this company. What happens if this internet site your considering goes away or goes out of business?

There are many large retail stores that sell the products and services from multiple vendors’ right? Those vendors honor the service and warranty. Those vendors support the product. The large retail store has made arrangements with those vendors to offer the product or services to you the consumer. It’s the same thing with comparison-shopping online stores or even brokered services such as ours.

An electronic storefront or office is really the same thing as its brick and mortar counterpart.

I’m glad to see that the television news finally understands what we’ve known for a long time. Comparison-shopping for products and services is smart. Whether you do it by driving around to each different store, or surf different web sites, it just makes sense.