Forget “Better Online Shopping” - Give Me A Shopping Plug-In
I ran across a tip for better online shopping and of course the headline got my attention. This article discusses a new shopping search engine called Ugenie, which supposedly gives you the cheapest bottom line. Techcrunch gave it rave reviews based on the fact it that it gives you bottom line dollar (after sales tax, shipping, and coupons are factored in), bundled up bargains, suggests other items you might be interested in, and does not accept money for preferred placements.Â
Of course, I headed on over there to “seek for deals”. I initially started typing in “fisher price doll house” because I am currently looking for one for a child’s birthday in January.   Well the search results had nothing to do with a doll house, but several books were recommended.  So I tried another toy search and again the results were not a toy but were book and music recommendations. Then I went back and read the fine print. This is something that others are seemingly not doing because from reading other write ups about this, it is being touted as a brand new kind of search engine (no restrictions were mentioned).  It is only a search engine for books, music, movies, and games.Â
Well that just ruined it for me. I don’t buy my books online, we borrow them from the library. We don’t buy music, just listen to the radio. So my visions of getting better online shopping went up in a puff of virtual smoke.Â
What I think someone really needs to invent is not another shopping search engine based on Amazon products, but a shopping plug-in (like the plug-ins for Wordpress) or desk top application. This could be programmed so that when you are shopping online it will chime (voice or pop-up) with some predetermined messages (based on your shopping likes/dislikes):
“They don’t have what you want. ”
“What are you doing at another shopping site? ”
“It is not a good deal.”
“Are you crazy? You need another __________ like you need a hole in the head.”
“It is not in the budget (spending plan). ”
“This will take xx number of years to pay off given the most recent balance of your visa card and will eventually cost you $_______ because of the interest charges you will incur.”
I would venture to bet that the savers would be more than happy to purchase this as a Christmas present for the spenders in their families.Â
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Thanks for visiting ugenie.com. I am sorry that you couldn’t find what you were searching for. We are aware that quite a few of our visitors are searching for toys and electronics. This number is growing as we approach holidays. We will message better on our home page that customers can only shop for books, music, movies, and videogames. Meanwhile, we are working hard to expand the set of categories we support on ugenie and plan to have electronics up by January.
I would like to clarify to your users that:
- we have more than 40 merchants we pull our prices from; more than any other big name comparison shopping engine in the books, music, movies, and videogames categories.
- the real power of ugenie becomes evident when you shop for multiple items. The cheapest bottomline price for a bundle of items can be much lower than individually comparison shopping for each item.
- ugenie shows you bottomline prices. That includes factoring in any applicable coupon or mail-in rebate, in addition to accurate shipping and tax information for all merchants. While there are many sites that let users browse coupons, we don’t know of any that will apply them automatically on the items you wish to purchase.
[...] Dana @ Not Made of Money reviews another way to shop online and offers some input [...]
[...] This past week we participated in the carnival of personal finance #75 with Forget Better Online Shopping - Give Me A Shopping Plugin and the festival of frugality #49 with 50 Homemade Gift Ideas From Around The Web. [...]
[...] The Carnival of Personal Finance #75 has an insightful post called Forget “Better Online Shopping†- Give Me A Shopping Plug-In which I think will spur some innovators to action. Don’t look now but you may get your wish in the not too distant future but maybe not exactly as a plug-in. I also got a lot out of Your Opportunity Cost, where I got to thinking about mine (thanks Andy!). [...]
I used a shopping comparison engine in college for textbooks. I saved me tons of money, and now I rely upon them for everything. Why would I want to pay more money? The one I like the most now is called SmartBookFinder.com. They have comparison services for Buying Books, Selling Books, and Renting Books. I recommend them for sure.