These sites are often the first place shoppers look to find
price and dealer information. We discovered that while some of them attempt
to be accurate and objective, others either are more careless or actually function
as part of the merchants' marketing effort.
Brief History
First there were a few merchants online, mostly stores that
added a web presence to
their "brick and mortar" business. Then there were more, lots more, and many
of them were brand new, and it became hard to sort them out and compare them.
Then came sites that rounded up other sites
and compared them, and then came a whole industry built on matching buyers with
sellers for a profit. Today it is a large and complex industry.
The business model of the search-site, or shopping-comparison
site, is pretty simple. It gathers information about some vendors and presents
it to
potential
customers.
Every time a visitor "clicks through" to one of the listed vendors, the search
site collects a small fee - maybe a penny - from the vendor. On that basic
principle an elaborate structure has grown.
The 21st Century search-site has a complex relationship with
the vendors it lists. There are often different tiers of vendors, who bid higher
click-through fees, or even a percentage of sales, for higher placement in
the listings. Or for anything the site can do to give a particular vendor an
edge over its competitors. So a site may have a vested interest in guiding
visitors to its
highest tier of vendors (whom it now refers to as "affiliates").
It's easy to see why many search-sites might
work together with their top affiliates to make them more attractive to buyers.
Some sites are in effect marketing partners with their affiliates, although
not all of them are open about it. Some even
feature their affiliates' advertising and other promotional material.
The Ratings Quandary
And we arrive at the topic of ratings. What began as a service
to readers, adding value to a given search-site, has become a large factor
in steering traffic to affiliates, boosting profits all around. So it's no
surprise that certain dealers with spotty reputations among their former customers
show up on certain search-sites with sterling ratings. Or that even some sites
which try to play it straight design their merchant rating systems to be generous.
An example of the latter is PriceScan, a prominent and diverse
service company. Their five-stars rating system breaks down this way:
"hassle-free online ordering", 3 stars
"vendor provides customer support by phone", .5 stars
"posts a comprehensive privacy policy", .25 stars
"lists a physical address...", .25 stars
"accepts returns on unopened items without a restocking fee", .5 stars
"participates in the Better Business Bureau's Online Reliability Program", .5 stars
So if I set up a website, make it easy for you to order on it, offer support
via phone (no matter how long the wait or what quality the support), and list
a boilerplate privacy policy somewhere, my site gets 3.75 stars automatically.
If I add an address and accept returns of unopened items (even if
I charge for returns of wrong or defective, but opened, items) I'm up to 4.5
stars.
But there is a more insidious problem with the ratings systems.
On sites which rely on customer feedback for merchant ratings, there is rarely
any attempt to check the legitimacy of the feedback. Many photo and video forum
regulars have questioned the flood of similar, glowing reviews some dealers
receive. And "gaming the system" that way is a cheap and easy way
for a merchant to promote his business. (Interestingly, some dealers have complained
in the
forums that negative reviews were planted on these sites by their competitors.)
The Buyer's Dilemma
The search-site-and-affiliate relationship is part
of a more complex web. Many of today's sites link to each other or share
resources, and some fill gaps in their affiliate lists by linking to huge
retailers like Amazon, which in turn channel traffic to their
own affiliates. With each site collecting its toll along the road, of course.
Many search-sites, despite lacking a clear, rigorous source
for their product and dealer
evaluations,
are accepted
as authoritative and reliable by the unwary shopper.
Can a
buyer rely on ratings at all? No. Maybe. Sometimes. We believe that anyone
looking for a bargain online must check several sources of information,
and should use the
major search engines to find first-hand
comments on specfic dealers. We suggest a few sources to start with
on our Relevant
Reading page.
For fun with merchant reviews, and a contest, see this
page.
For one example of search-site evolution, see this
page.
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