Retrevo Lets You Tap Into Electronics Recommendations Via SMS And Twitter

There are plenty of sites that aim to help consumers make sense of electronics reviews. Startup Retrevo serves aggregates trusted reviews from a variety of sites around the web, such as Amazon and CNET, and then recommends products based upon reviews, features and price. Retrevo uses a proprietary technology to make sense of the vastly huge consumer electronics market and help electronics shoppers decide what to buy, when to buy, and where to buy it. Today, the site is launching several real-time and on-demand product recommendation features that lets consumers access product reviews on the fly.

Retrevo now lets consumers use their mobile phones and Twitter to access on-demand reviews and recommendations. So if you are at BestBuy and want to access Retrevo’s product recommendation for a certain camera model, you can text “41411” with “retrevoq Canon EOS 500D” (the model number and brand name). Retrevo will immediately respond within seconds with a response: “Canon 500D: Strong Buy if you want high-end Fair Price: $842, Range: $724 – $1043 http://bit.ly/3pSVvk” that includes the recommendation (strong buy vs. average), a fair price for the product (similar to the blue book value), a range of prices for the product pulled from various sites on the web, and a link to Retrevo’s full review on its site.

On Twitter, you can Tweet @Retrevoq with a model number for a electronics product and receive the same customized information via an @reply. Retrevo’s site reviews are also getting a real-time makeover. For each product, Retrevo will deliver measurements of the buzz on the web surrounding a product, the product’s value for its current price, sentiments of the reviews on the web, and current deals on the product. All the information is dynamically updated.

Adding mobile functionality and Twitter integration makes sense for Retrevo. Consumers will no doubt find the ability automatically get objective reviews (Retrevo claims that their product reviews are objective) on the fly. And it’s helpful that Retrevo aggregates pricing info from most of the main electronics sites and makes recommendations based on the reviews, making it more of a one-stop-shop for product reviews. Retrevo, which has raised $12 million in funding, faces competition from Wize, PC World and CNET.