Here’s the second installment of my critiques of South African shopping/price comparison sites. Today’s subject is PriceCheck.co.za
PriceCheck was started by Kevin Tucker, and from I can gather launched in June 2006. Since then it has attracted and average of 3700 uniques a month, which is pretty impressive since doing a Google SA search for “Apple iPod” does not yield any natural results for PriceCheck. They have got Adwords but it isn’t very targeted and I would suggest they address this issue as it will make a huge improvement to their ICR (internal conversion rate).
At first glance I am unable to get clarification on their business model, but I have a good guess and this will become clear later on.
Kevin stated on his blog in December ‘06 that PriceCheck had 15000 products in the database with 30000 more coming. This is damn impressive, especially if this is being done manually on his own. Although I don’t think these are being created from scratch as PriceCheck looks like it is using the Yahoo! API- although I do not know this as a fact.
Yahoo! own a ‘little’ comparison site called Kelkoo, which bears remarkable similarities to PriceCheck. Note the following comparisons for LCD tv’s:
It was after noticing this that I was able to have a stab at what model PriceCheck are using. My guess is PriceCheck are also using a CPC model, with preference given to merchants which are paying the CPC. I have no issues with this practice, although I do think it is important to communicate to the user that the first placed merchant is not necessarily the cheapest. You are a ‘price’ comparison site after all, and the user assumes that the top merchant is cheaper. Now before everyone has a go at me saying that as a user surely that is common sense, let me say- no it isn’t. Users are inherently lazy and stupid (that’s why they use a comparison site in the first place.)
At this stage I can say that I prefer PriceCheck to Jump in many ways, most noticably is the usability, but this may be biased as I am just used to using Kelkoo which PriceCheck seems to be modelled on.
The site is quick and search results are, on the whole, relevent. The integration with Justin’s- Grabble, is a smart move and means that Jump don’t get too far ahead in their partnerships within search.
So PriceCheck gets points for usability, but loses out on design and innovation. If some work could be done to make the site better looking (losing some of the Adsense could help) without sacrificing the speed, this site would be excellent.
Overall- I like!
January 21, 2007 at 12:44 am
Hi Grant
I like the critique. Thanks, it’s very positive, and it seems we think the same way.
Some comments on your comments
:
1. It’s all free at the moment – for users and retailers alike. We are analysing the various revenue models while we build up a critical mass of advertisers and products. There are so many models out there and the CPC one doesn’t always offer the greatest benefit to the retailer.
2. Kelkoo was a massive influence after my time in the UK and, nope, the Yahoo! API is not involved at all. It’d be very hard to match up their EAN and UPC codes here in SA.
3. The process for adding products is very complex (and my secret
), and it has to be to make PriceCheck a real comparison site. Others in SA (no names mentioned) just seem to dump products and show prices without genuine comparison.
4. Search results at the moment are not ordered on a bidding basis like other sites, and can always be sorted by price by the user – yes, this does add nice functionality when/if using PPC
5. Because of the free model at the moment, the AdSense will have to stay
6. Try the iPod search again – you’ll see the AdWords ad. (that’s how well targeted it is – lol)
January 21, 2007 at 12:45 am
PriceCheck blogged
So, I have no idea why I haven’t blogged about PriceCheck before – probably because it’s been keeping me so damn busy! Well, it’s out there and people are noticing….
January 22, 2007 at 10:11 am
Hi Kevin,
I’m really glad to get some feedback from a site owner! Your comments are really interesting and apart from being intrigued about your product creation process (the colonel’s secret recipe), I’m now wondering how the South African merchants are reacting to the comparison sites that are popping up.
Given that for now it is a free service, what’s the take up like from merchants? Are they aware of the benefit of comparison services, and what sort of questions are they asking. Where I’m going with this is, what level of education is needed in the South African market. Do you feel that by not charging for the service, the retailer is not taking you seriously enough, and because of this they are not dedicating resources to developing quality feeds which makes what you’re trying to do- that much harder?
It’s a catch 22, but something that needs to be overcome at some stage?
January 22, 2007 at 10:40 am
Yes, I agree. Everything in the online market in SA seems to be a catch 22.
A lot of education is needed. Fear of the unknown is the biggest problem. One retailer once said: “I don’t want to be listed because my products aren’t the cheapest, but our service is good”.
I tried to convince him that good ratings would show this and would benefit him considerably. The fact that comparison shopping is not all about price is hard to use to convince people. But I’ll keep trying
And, yes, offering a free service breeds a similar sense of the unknown and a perception of poor quality. But, it worked for companies like Google, so I have faith.
January 22, 2007 at 10:42 am
Oh, one more thing: Your title should read “Comparison Site Critique: PriceCheck.co.za”
it has .co.uk in the address
January 22, 2007 at 10:55 am
Doh!
Damn auto pilot- have changed it.
I can understand it will take time for retailers to come round to the idea. Are you offering any kind of ROI tracking to show merchants the benefits?
I little further down the line it may be worth getting some of your partners to give you a reference. I’ve found that retailers don’t buy from salesman, they buy because they don’t want their competitors to get ahead of them.
That being said, ‘perfect the product and it will sell itself’, is never a bad way to go.