Shopping online is getting easier
The Raleigh News & Observer printed an interview with me that discusses how online shopping tools work and the advantages and disadvantages of using them. While the format was very basic (they wanted a simple overview), it worked out well. Here is the interview:

Perhaps you had this problem during a recent online shopping search for the perfect holiday gift: You knew the exact item you wanted to buy, but searching the Web for the best price was overwhelming. Shopping bots come to the rescue. Don't know how to use them? We turned to WebSourced's Andy Beal, vice president of marketing at the search engine marketing company [KeywordRanking.com], to get a little know-how on these online tools, designed to help ease shoppers' struggle finding the best price and online retailer. WebSourced's Beal knows a thing or two about the sites. The 29-year-old British native is an avid shopper -- both on and off line. And he's a key player working to expand the 58-employee Morrisville firm that helps companies get better positioning on all type of search engines, including shopping comparison sites. He talked with staff writer Samantha Smith about how shopping bots can help transform the online shopping experience.

Q. For those who haven't used them, what is a shopping bot?

A. A shopping bot is basically a tool that aggregates different online stores that sell products so that a consumer can have one point of access to multiple stores to compare products, pricing and shipping costs. Really, it helps them get the best deal -- the best product at the best price.

Q. What a strange name. How was it derived?

A. Shopping bot is not a name that I would commonly use. I would call it a comparison shopping tool. Shopping bot is a better description for the actual technology used to collect information. Shopping bot conjures up an image of the technology that one of these sites would use to go out and collect the information about the stores. Search engines have what we call robots, which go out and collect the information.

Q. How long have shopping bots been around, and when did they start becoming an effective online shopping research tool?

A. They've been around in some form or another for seven or eight years, but they started becoming really effective about three years ago. There has been a lot more competition among the comparison shopping tools. Companies have better technology so that it has become easier for someone to use one of these comparison shopping tools to get results they want.

Q. Why are shopping bots becoming more popular?

A. These days, there are a lot more stores online than there used to be. It's easier and faster for companies to create an online presence than it has been. You've got small mom-and-pop shops coming online, plus you've got large companies that are going straight to an online presence. It's becoming more difficult for the average consumer to keep a handle on all of these and make sure they are getting the best deal. So rather than carrying out their own research to see what's the best price, they can go to a comparison shopping tool to compare the price.

Q. What are some of the most effective or popular shopping bots and why?

A. If you absolutely know the product you want and you are looking for the best price, then shopping.com or pricegrabber.com are the best. If you know the type of product you want but you don't know the price, model or manufacturer, and you want the best price, then probably epinions.com would be good. Epinions.com is unique because one of its strengths is that it offers a lot more reviews. You may not necessarily find the best deal, but it allows people to post reviews. If you want something more obscure, then shopping.yahoo.com is good. It has a lot more small stores. You are more likely to get the mom-and-pop shops. Different comparison tools have different strengths, and some have different tie-ins.

Q. What are the advantages of bots?

A. They show you the product. You can get a review of the product. You can type in your ZIP code and get an estimate for the shipping cost. You can see if the product's in stock. There's nothing worse than going through the order process only to be left in limbo for two weeks because the product wasn't ever in stock. The information available now is so much better.

Q. What are the disadvantages?

A. Sometimes you'll often go to a store and the product will be out of stock, yet the comparison tool won't show that. Sometimes the comparison won't accurately show the shipping charges. Sometimes you'll see a product and it has a great price, but the product is really used or refurbished.

Q. Are there things that you can't find using shopping bots?

A. When you start looking for something obscure it gets really hard. If you are looking something that's personalized or a trinket or a collectible, it gets really hard to find those particular products because part of the reason there's not enough competition.

Q. What sort of new trends did you see during the holidays?

A. The traditional search engines -- Google, AskJeeves, Yahoo -- are paying a lot more attention to shopping searches, and they started getting involved in this area of search. Google recently launched Froogle.com. It's their shopping tool. They're taking their formula for success and applying it to a shopping-comparison tool, hoping that brand trust will be strong enough to provide for their shopping comparison tool.

Q. How do they make money?

A. A lot of the comparison tools charge the stores to be listed. So they'll say, OK, we'll charge you for product placement, say 30 cents for every product, or they charge on a per click basis.

Q. Are there unknown or little-known features that many users don't realize are available?

A. Some shoppers don't realize that a lot of the sites have a rating on a store. It's important to look at that because there's nothing worse than thinking you're getting the best deal, but the store only has a one-star rating and they mess up the delivery or they don't have the product in stock.
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