New San Francisco ecommerce startup zeeDive, which we mentioned a couple of weeks ago and still has the most basic of landing pages up to the public, has entered a limited private beta.
Like another recent startup called Limbo Auctions, zeeDive has an interesting twist on the standard online buying experience. zeeDive sets a top price for an item and drops it steadily until time runs out or someone buys it. Buyers can step in at any time and make a purchase, or set a price. If the item falls to that price, that buyer gets it.
It’s an interesting model that will appeal to bargain hunters. However, the current inventory on the site is very limited (even though they cover a ton of categories, including Beauty & Health, Clothing Accessories, Electronics, Jewelry, Travel, etc.). There just isn’t much that they have for sale, yet. A bigger concern is the pricing, which doesn’t seem to be so low that people will flock to the site. Nevertheless, these are issues that can be worked out during the beta process.
The design of the site and use of Ajax to show pricing changes and to set the buy price is very well done. They’ve also included merchant feedback, watch-lists and other useful features. Our overall impression is that they’ve created a buttoned-up ecommerce site, but there needs to be much more inventory and significantly lower prices. Note that the company has already warned us about the limited inventory during beta. Also, the company is proactively engaging with testers to improve the service (they sent a nice survey asking for feedback – mine is given here. 
)
