But it often happens to most of us that after purchasing a product,we realise that we should have bought a better ‘Value for Money’ product from a different manufacturer,which was available but we didn’t know about it earlier.Hence,any suggestions before making a final decision for a purchase is generally welcomed but no suggestions(from friends & colleagues) are well researched and updated.
This problem of “Intelligent decision-making” is getting addressed by Shopnics
Shopnics lets you compare electronic gadgets and also suggests you the best ‘Value for Money’ deals.The broad comparison of multiple brands for a particular item(say Laptop) is presented on a single page invisual format.
The “Shopnics Decision Graph”(what they call their visual comparison chart) helps users visually compare the products from different make.Applying smart filters lets you filter out the “Value for Money” product,more specific to your needs(such as price,features etc)
In their own words
Our goal is to simplify the shopping experience and help making buying decisions faster. We spent a year analyzing some of the electronic products and applied our knowledge in the field of Artificial Intelligence to come up with the algorithm to find the best decision and a presentation ‘Shopnics Decision Graph’ of the decisions
Things in Favor
- Youtube video embedded with product details
- Ajaxized UI(Specially the ‘Visual Decision Graph’,which is very intuitive and neatly worked out)
Things in Against
- Small Catalogue(Only 8 categories at the moment,specifically Gadgets)
- Restricted to U.S. market only (Such a service can capitalize unmonopolised international market)
- Shopnics’s Pitch (their main USP is their algorithm that suggests ‘Value for money’ deals to users.Visual comparison is an added advantage for Shopnics’s users)
- Incomplete product line(Try comparing mobile phones and you won’t find iPhone(What ?) there.Similarly,compare laptops and you won’t find brands like Dell,Fujitsu,Compaq etc )
The good part is that Shopnics is conceptually strong and can get rid of most of the issues i listed(it’s actually a matter of time & money).If the above issues are addressed,Shopnics may establish itself as an unbiased third party suggestion tool before making any online purchase for masses.