Aug 16, 2005 5:15 pm US/Central
Online Shopping Made Easy With Bots
Bots Scan Online Stores For Lowest Price
by Dorothy Tucker
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
It's like having your own personal online shopper. But before you enlist their help, beware. You could be paying more than you have to.
CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker lifts the veil on some online shopping websites, better know as bots.
Denise Killian will add another pair of shoes to her collection. She bought them online using Shopzilla.
"I buy shoes probably four, five, six times a month," Killian said.
Shopzilla is a shopping bot. Bots are websites that, like a personal shopper, search every online store locating the lowest price on whatever item you are looking for. They link you directly to that merchant, and they even rate the stores' customer service for you.
"When I first discovered Shopzilla, I already owned shoes that I found cheaper than what I paid for at the store," Killian said.
Shopzilla isn't the only shopping bot. New ones are popping up everywhere, billing themselves as a smarter way to shop.
But how do they compare to each other and are they cheaper than the stores in the malls? We went to find out.
Three of the largest shopping bots are PriceGrabber, Shopping.com and Shopzilla. The first item we looked at was a Canon SD400 camera.
After searching all three bots, both Shopzilla and PriceGrabber had the lowest price at $310. A $4 savings over Shopping.com and compared to $399 at the local store, you'd save $89.
We looked at a 61-inch TV. Shopzilla came back with the lowest price of $1,889, beating PriceGrabber at $1,914 and Shopping.com at $2,399. Compared to a local store's $2,899,you'd save a more than $1,000 at Shopzilla.
Almost every single item was cheaper using a shopping bot than if we went into a store. The only exception was a Bowflex treadmill. All three bots had it for $1,275. But we found it on sale at a local store for $849 -- a savings of $426.
There are some things to watch out for. Featured merchants pay to get top billings, so don't assume that the merchant at the top of the list has the lowest price.
Check out all the prices and remember, keep on the look out for sales at local stores.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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