WinBuyer has just announced that it has raised institutional funding for the first time, to the tune of $6.9 million, in a Series A round led by Pitango Venture Capital and joined by Giza Venture Capital.
The young Israeli company markets a so-called Onsite Comparative Pricing (OCP) application, which aims to help Internet retailers integrate comparison shopping elements straight into their own product pages.
The idea is that visitors of ecommerce websites would be less inclined to search the Web for more information and comparative pricing for products they intend to buy when the online retailer actually shows all that information on his own website prior to purchase, including pricing of and links to his competitors. Evidently, retailers can opt to show only information for merchants who sell the same product at a higher price point.
WinBuyer says this strategy helps lift sales because it removes the need for potential buyers to scour the net for more information, thus making the conversion process swifter. The company claims the OCP app also helps e-tailers keep customers coming back to them since it turns their product information pages into one-stop shops.
WinBuyer gets pricing and other information for products directly from hundreds of merchants and dozens of comparative shopping partners such as Shopping.com, Shopzilla and PriceGrabber.
Installation of the Javascript application is free and the tool includes a feature for AB testing, which enables online retailers to try out various integrations and custom placements on their websites before rolling it out in full. WinBuyer makes money from PPC revenue sharing.
Earlier this month, the company struck a partnership agreement with Overstock.com, which will integrate WinBuyer’s OCP application into their product detail pages (for an example page, go to this product page on the US site and look at the top right section).
A couple of downsides from what I can gather: the app is only available for English-language sites at this moment, and since the application isn’t capable of showing comparative shipping and handling costs for every online retailer out there, savvy shoppers are still better off researching detailed pricing on other retailers’ website to make sure they’re getting the best bang for their buck.