Price comparison website/app

[jlj781]

Hey there, i'm new to the forum and searched but couldn't find anyone or forum with information or experience in the price comparison website area of eCommerce. I have an idea for a price comparison website for a profitable niche that i am very familiar with and work in. The area this niche is in has little to no online shopping with most shopping and pricing being done in person. There are many different companies offering the exact same products by single manufactures or interchangeable versions of the same product but by a different brand by different manufacturers . The amount spent by customers in this area is very very high so even small % savings changes in purchasing prices could offer thousands to tens of thousands of dollars in savings and value for the customer. This would be a one stop shop for pricing compared to the the current way they have to do it by calling or visiting each company to find out pricing. This saves valuable time for the consumer and would compare more companies than they usually would manually, increasing possible savings. However because these products are not sold online it would be difficult or impossible to get a click through commission how most traditional comparison sites do so i was toying with the idea making this a membership type site or a monthly paid app, where users would pay for access to this comparison pricing. In this way this isn't a typical small electronics comparison site and it would be different than the traditional Hotels.com type site. I have had difficulty finding any sites like this for any similar style industry to see how others have done similar sites or to find a bit of a blue print. A difficulty that may be faced and why this would be so valuable is that pricing in this industry price can change quite often and can be variable from different companies and regions and most of the companies keep their pricing quiet unless asked. There is pretty much no place where there is posted prices for any company within this industry which is why this would bring so much value being the first of its kind. That being said because the industry is set up this way it might be hard to get the pricing out of each company to put together on a list. I know on other sites like Hotels.com they offer up pricing to be used, because this industries products are more like a commodity and a site like this would threaten to lower prices i'm not sure companies would be as willing to participate by offering all their pricing to a site. so i was also wondering if there were any sites out there that compare prices based on collected actual quotes or receipts submitted by members and compiled by a website. I hope where i posted this was ok, as i was wondering if anyone had any experience with anything like this that could help guide me along on where or how to start or point me in the direction of a site or app that is similar or anyone with experience. If i missed anything in the forum and this is similar or repeat post i apologize and would greatly appreciate links to related topic forums or websites being posted. Thanks again for any help, feedback or ideas and i hope everyone has a good day.

 

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[LateStarter]

You have some options, but as a consumer, I hate membership-based sites. Do you know how many people are trying the subscription model these days? It's getting stupidly expensive for consumers and I predict there will be a revolt against this model shortly for many industries. But I digress...

Instead, why wouldn't you just create your own online store for these products and resell them yourself? If they aren't readily available online why not move to corner the online market and potentially make more money through margin than through commission? Particularly if the online market isn't proven yet it would make sense to set up a simple shop, or post on Amazon-like stores for your industry and test it.

The way I see it, you can begin to build an online distributorship and negotiate a wholesaler agreement with the manufacturer once you get some traction. Then you have even more margin to work with until online competition grows. I would think based on the product price that it would beat a lead gen model for total revenue.

 

[jlj781]

You have some options, but as a consumer, I hate membership-based sites. Do you know how many people are trying the subscription model these days? It's getting stupidly expensive for consumers and I predict there will be a revolt against this model shortly for many industries. But I digress...

Instead, why wouldn't you just create your own online store for these products and resell them yourself? If they aren't readily available online why not move to corner the online market and potentially make more money through margin than through commission? Particularly if the online market isn't proven yet it would make sense to set up a simple shop, or post on Amazon-like stores for your industry and test it.

The way I see it, you can begin to build an online distributorship and negotiate a wholesaler agreement with the manufacturer once you get some traction. Then you have even more margin to work with until online competition grows. I would think based on the product price that it would beat a lead gen model for total revenue.

Thanks for the reply. I have thought of that end, but this industry would make it very difficult to start my own online store. Barriers to entry, restrictive products purchasing, high inventory, infrastructure and logistical costs would make this a massive undertaking. Much larger than I would be able to handle at this point. While I agree the subscription area is getting full, An average customer in this industry would spend in the range of $100,000.00 minimum per year with many spending over $1,000,000.00 and some high end Upto $10,000,000.00. I feel a subscription fee that could potentially save a percentage off of that could be worth it. Even at a high subscription cost that could be oin the range of $100s up to $1000 a year. Saving them time and money would be more than valuable enough to pay for itself in some cases many times over.

 

[LateStarter]

Ok, I was thinking might be able to take an order and buy the product from your supplier post-purchase to fulfill it. But I can see why that wouldn't work here.

How often do customers purchase these? If the rebuying frequency is low, what's value to consumers for a subscription? It may be better, but not easier, to approach sellers and hammer out a lead-gen or commission structure.

 

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[jlj781]

Ok, I was thinking might be able to take an order and buy the product from your supplier post-purchase to fulfill it. But I can see why that wouldn't work here.

How often do customers purchase these? If the rebuying frequency is low, what's value to consumers for a subscription? It may be better, but not easier, to approach sellers and hammer out a lead-gen or commission structure.

That is one of the best parts of this this is a repeat business. A subscription could be carried on for years if it is seen as valuable.

 

[BrooklynHustle]

Hey there, i'm new to the forum and searched but couldn't find anyone or forum with information or experience in the price comparison website area of eCommerce. I have an idea for a price comparison website for a profitable niche that i am very familiar with and work in. The area this niche is in has little to no online shopping with most shopping and pricing being done in person. There are many different companies offering the exact same products by single manufactures or interchangeable versions of the same product but by a different brand by different manufacturers . The amount spent by customers in this area is very very high so even small % savings changes in purchasing prices could offer thousands to tens of thousands of dollars in savings and value for the customer. This would be a one stop shop for pricing compared to the the current way they have to do it by calling or visiting each company to find out pricing. This saves valuable time for the consumer and would compare more companies than they usually would manually, increasing possible savings. However because these products are not sold online it would be difficult or impossible to get a click through commission how most traditional comparison sites do so i was toying with the idea making this a membership type site or a monthly paid app, where users would pay for access to this comparison pricing. In this way this isn't a typical small electronics comparison site and it would be different than the traditional Hotels.com type site. I have had difficulty finding any sites like this for any similar style industry to see how others have done similar sites or to find a bit of a blue print. A difficulty that may be faced and why this would be so valuable is that pricing in this industry price can change quite often and can be variable from different companies and regions and most of the companies keep their pricing quiet unless asked. There is pretty much no place where there is posted prices for any company within this industry which is why this would bring so much value being the first of its kind. That being said because the industry is set up this way it might be hard to get the pricing out of each company to put together on a list. I know on other sites like Hotels.com they offer up pricing to be used, because this industries products are more like a commodity and a site like this would threaten to lower prices i'm not sure companies would be as willing to participate by offering all their pricing to a site. so i was also wondering if there were any sites out there that compare prices based on collected actual quotes or receipts submitted by members and compiled by a website. I hope where i posted this was ok, as i was wondering if anyone had any experience with anything like this that could help guide me along on where or how to start or point me in the direction of a site or app that is similar or anyone with experience. If i missed anything in the forum and this is similar or repeat post i apologize and would greatly appreciate links to related topic forums or websites being posted. Thanks again for any help, feedback or ideas and i hope everyone has a good day.

In the future it would be good to break your text up into digestible chunks for readability, which will help you to get more & better responses

Seems like a good idea if you can execute it, but where would you plan to source the data from... I would put that question on you first to come up with a few ideas for that