Compare Prices On Any Product and Find the Best Deals Online Before You Buy with PriceRunner US
The website PriceRunner is a price comparison service launched in Sweden in 1999, and since bought by ValueClick. It allows users to compare prices on a range of products. The headquarters are in Stockholm, Sweden, and it also has offices in London, Munich, Paris and California.
History
PriceRunner was launched in 1999 as a price comparison service based in Sweden and originally financed by a venture capitalist group called Cell Ventures, who were later acquired by NewMedia Spark. It launched the service in the UK and Denmark in 2000. Initially, they had planned to become a pan-European service, but some of these services were closed down in 2002 after poor financial performance.
In August 2004, it was acquired by ValueClick, an online media company, for £16 million ($29 million).
Further expansion saw PriceRunner reopen the French office in August 2004, go into Germany in October of the same year, and the US in October 2005.
In 2006, it announced that it would launch a partnership service with 118118, a UK phone based service, to provide prices to people by SMS. This followed an earlier failure to enter the mobile market in 2002 by providing price tracking through the site. In October, MSN announced that their Shopping sites in France and the UK would be powered by PriceRunner and Shopping.com. They had previously been powered by Kelkoo
Technology
PriceRunner uses a combination of screen scraping retailers' websites and files supplied by the retailers themselves. These prices are matched against a backend database. This is done by using both a fuzzy logic automatching system, and manually by Olof Sandh.
Business Model
PriceRunner is similar to other price comparison services in that it is financed by advertisers, who pay on a pay per click model. It also uses web banners provided by sister company, vcmedia.
Differentiators from main competition
Similar to Froogle, it opts to feature all retailers and sorts by price. This is in contrast to the Kelkoo and Shopping.com model, which features only paying retailers and allows them to bid for position in the rankings.
It also features a forum, product reviews, retailer reviews, and extensive product information. In this respect, it is closer to such as Ciao.com and Dooyoo.com.
About PriceRunner
Consumer guide, price guide and shopping comparison
PriceRunner was designed to provide consumers with easy online access to specifications and prices for a wide variety of products. After only a few minutes of browsing our site, the customer is already in a good position to make an informed decision about a purchase. Whatever it is you are looking for, you can quickly work out which model best meets your needs, where it is available, and at the lowest possible price. Whether you wish to purchase on or offline, PriceRunner will point you to the best deal.
Our vision
PriceRunner is radically changing the way people buy. It is now possible to gain an overview of the full range of products being offered by a broad range of retailers. PriceRunner provides this service by offering independent price comparisons and detailed product information from both online and traditional stores. In this way the consumer’s choice is greatly enhanced, with just a few clicks of a mouse!
We list both those retailers who pay for an Enhanced Listing (graphic logos, direct links and a retailer message) and other retailers from which we do not receive any payment. ‘Free’ retailers are listed where we believe they are credible*, competitively priced, and offer a wide range of products, dependable delivery services, return policies and customer support. Our goal is to list as many retailers, products and prices as possible, but we can never guarantee that all prices and products are listed on PriceRunner.com, whether they be from ‘free’ or ‘paying’ retailers.
*PriceRunner does not make any claims as to the reputability or quality of the retailers we list, however we do aim to list such retailers and will remove a retailer (paying or free) if we believe they are disreputable.
Kristofer Arwin, Martin Alexanderson and Magnus Wiberg together with Cell Ventures as financier started PriceRunner in July of 1999. The Swedish site was launched shortly afterwards in December of 1999. PriceRunner was aquired by ValueClick Inc. in August 2004, with the US launch following in April 2005.
PriceRunner – trustworthy and independent
It is important to us that PriceRunner presents information in a way that is both independent and easy to understand. This is why consumers and independent organizations write all the product reviews on our site. Experts in each category compile our advice and recommendations so we are able to offer the consumer the best possible help before making a purchase. PriceRunner is not owned by, or dependent upon, any manufacturer, retailer, or other organization that could have an interest in giving biased information in any way. PriceRunner is independent and objective.
Advertisements at PriceRunner
PriceRunner is partly financed through advertising, but it is important to emphasize that no editorial content is changed according to the wishes of these advertisers.
PriceRunner – listening to consumers
PriceRunner welcomes feedback from its visitors. If you have an idea as to how we can improve our service, there is nothing we would appreciate more than for you to contact us. We are here to help you as a consumer - and your participation is the most important factor in helping us achieve our vision.
PriceRunner - changing and improving
The Internet is changing, improving and becoming more refined thanks to innovative ideas and new technologies. We will use this continuously to develop PriceRunner and offer better, faster and more detailed information.
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