BeatThat!

by David Parker, CEO, BeatThat.com

The press is full of articles and newscasts saying that retailers and manufacturers have slashed prices this holiday season, in anticipation of weak consumer demand due to the recession.  An analysis of the lowest prices on hundreds of popular consumer electronics products by BeatThat.com, however, reveals that prices have fallen on average a small amount – and that the biggest discounts are on specific models only.

As a result, BeatThat’s advice for this holiday season:  Look hard for the best discounts, and have an open mind as far as brands and models are concerned.  And, be wary of “bait and switch” tactics, where a super low price lures you into the store – but the discounted model isn’t available or is portrayed in a negative fashion, making the shopper look elsewhere in the store – for less discounted products.

The Numbers by Category

BeatThat.com, a site that pays “Deal Finders” – consumers who love to seek out the best deals online - has been tracking the lowest prices on its 500+ popular products for months now.  Because products are updated on average more than once per day, BeatThat.com is a great resource for finding out the best prices on any product at any time.

Here are the average percentage drops in prices, by category (from August 1 until November 30):

These numbers are interesting, but not what we at BeatThat expected, particularly given all the press lately about huge discounts.  TVs only down 7%?!

The Nitty Gritty

So we looked at each category, product by product.  Here’s where we found the interesting info.

Here are the percentages of products with price falls over 25% between August 1 and November 30:

What this means is that for some categories, you should expect to find discounts on a good selection of products; for others, the pickings are slim.  Discounted TVs are in particular few and far between – only 4% of the models we watch have fallen over 25% since August!  Just goes to show you how lots of advertising for a particular model can make you think that the whole category is cheaper – not the case this year.

Black Friday/Cyber Monday – Any Big News?

Do you wonder why people get trampled – tragically, to death this year - on Black Friday?  “While supplies last,” those hated three words.  Wal-Mart and many other retailers advertised huge discounts on particular models only, and they had only a limited supply.

Online, things were much more orderly.  Here are the numbers for the prior week, showing the average drop in price, and the percentage of products dropping more than 10% over the past ten days (November 20 through 30):

Here are the averages by category:

GPS:  -2.2% average
MP3 Players: -3.9% average
Camcorders: -1.5% average
Digital Cameras: -0.5% average
TVs: -0.9% average
Printers: +0.6%
OVERALL: -0.4%

So Black Friday and Cyber Monday were nothing special.  Only 12% of all consumer electronics products went down in price over 10%; overall, prices were essentially flat.  A classic case of the “squeaky wheel” – a small number of products got a lot of attention.

So Where Are the Deals?

BeatThat.com knows which products are selling for a really great price.  Here are the top deals, comparing prices from August 1 and November 30, by category:

GPS: Garmin Nuvi 850:  -44% ($373 currently)
MP3 Players: Apple iPod Nano 8 gb black, 3rd edition: -32% ($120 currently)
Camcorders: Panasonic HS9: -29% ($505 currently)
Digital Cameras: Pentax Optio V20: -55% ($102 currently)
TVs: Panasonic Viera TH 42 (42px80u): -29% ($630 currently)
Printers: HP Deskjet F4280: -56% ($29 currently)

Remember:  Yesterday’s deal might not be today’s - the above list is accurate as of December 1.  Be open minded and follow the “sale” signs, both online and offline.  And be sure to check BeatThat.com for the best prices on consumer electronics, as found by BeatThat’s expert Deal Finders.

David Parker
CEO, BeatThat.com

Barack Obama said it well in the second debate with John McCain – the government and US citizens both need to think about carefully managing their money coming in and money going out.  It's not enough to simply manage your spending – you have to manage your income as well. 

A simple example:  If your spending has to go up – due to an unforeseen medical issue, or even something as trivial as an invite to a relative's wedding (hence you have to get a present, plus maybe travel to the ceremony), then  you have two options:  1) cut other spending, or 2) pull in some additional income.

Saving Money

Most people try to cut spending.  We're seeing that now – restaurant receipts, travel expenses, and big ticket purchases (cars, TVs, furniture) are all down compared to last year.

But what about reducing spending on the “little things?”  Is there a way to save money consistently on smaller ticket purchases?

My web site, BeatThat.com, might be able to help.  BeatThat is a site that promises the lowest prices possible on hundreds of the most popular consumer electronics products.  The reason BeatThat is different is that every deal shown on the site has been submitted by consumers.  BeatThat is a “wisdom of the crowds” site – if you get hundreds of people scouring the Web for the best deals, through the law of numbers you'll find the very best.  BeatThat only pays its “Deal Finders” when they find a better deal than what's already on the site.

So as a result, if you have to buy a consumer electronics product – to replace a broken digital camera, or as a wedding gift to a young couple – try BeatThat, and see what the truly lowest prices are.

Adding Income

A potentially harder approach to managing your finances is to increase your income.  These days, just holding on to your job can be considered a success, so for most of us, adding income sounds appealing but nearly impossible.

One option is to find part-time work in addition to your “day job.”  Here, the Internet can be a life-saver, if you can figure out how to work at your computer at home for a couple hours in the evening.

Once again, BeatThat.com might be able to help.  Each month, BeatThat sends payments to its Deal Finders for their work.  A number of Deal Finders are pulling in thousands of dollars monthly!  Payment per approved deal is between fifty cents and two dollars (it depends on the quality of the store), and if you're good at finding deals, these cents and dollars can quickly add up.  BeatThat's Deal Finders work at all hours of the day and night (think:  While eating lunch at work?).

Conclusion

In these uncertain times, it makes sense to watch your personal and family finances carefully.  You may not be able to do anything about falling stock or housing prices, but you can do something about your expenses and your income.  Save as much as you can on both big and little purchases, and look for ways to pull in some extra income.  And don't forget about BeatThat.com, a site that can help you do both.

by David Parker

Founder/CEO BeatThat.com

As CEO of BeatThat.com, I'm in a position to see eBay's deals constantly, because BeatThat's "Deal-Finders" submit dozens of eBay deals to BeatThat.com daily in order to make money (we pay between fifty cents and two dollars per approved deal).

What I see coming from eBay isn't pretty.  Quite frankly, I'm surprised eBay is doing as well as it is, because the level of inconsistency in terms of appearance, data, and quality is remarkable.  I have been reading lately that eBay wants to encourage its bigger stores to post non-auction offers - I think this program has a LONG way to go before shoppers feel safe to navigate eBay's waters.

So here's my Top Ten list of the current problems with eBay, faced by shoppers:

1) It's very difficult to judge the item's condition.

eBay sellers use a variety of terms to describe a product's condition, from New to NIB (New In Box) to Perfect to Mint to MIB (Mint in Box) to NWT (New With Tags) to Mint in Mint Box.  Shoppers have to pick through the listings to figure out exactly what these terms (or worse, the absence of them) mean.

2) The quality score of Sellers is meaningless.

Doesn't eBay understand that nearly every seller on their service seems to have a 98+% quality score?  Does anyone really believe that ALL these sellers are that good?

3) Confusing/Misleading Item Titles.

As much as eBay tries to get sellers to put the "right" info into its listings' titles,  it's still the "Wild West" out there.  ALL CAPS, multiple exclamation points (!!!!), superlative language ("Excellent!"), "compare" with other products (to get more listing views) - it's all there.

4) Terrible inconsistency in the design/user interface of product listing pages.

eBay is trying to encourage its "power sellers" to put together high-quality pages, and it's failing.  Sellers load in poorly designed graphics and pictures are often stock pictures instead of the actual item being sold.  The layout of these pages reminds me of HTML pages built in 1996.

5) Sellers write useless information on their product pages.

All too often sellers bypass the structured data fields ("Item Specifics") and load generic product descriptions taken directly from manufacturers - info that is of no value to the shopper.

6) Search/Search Results Pages are a nightmare.

"Featured Items" are shown first, and for a popular product, that could mean dozens of listings, all of which look the same, with similar graphics and descriptive text.    The default sort order is nonsensical - prices vary greatly, as do the times when listings end.  Eventually some listings don't have photos, which makes them look lame; some listings include accessories, some don't; and there can be many duplicate listings from the same sellers.

7) Buy It Now v. Auction — the difference can be meaningless.

Many "power sellers" post the same items as both "Buy It Now" and "Auction," just in different listings.  Or the "Buy It Now" option is added or subtracted during an auction, at the seller's whim.  From a shopper's perspective, one is left wondering what the difference is.

8) Seller Reviews — Useless.

Even if you wanted to find the infinitessimal number of negative reviews on a seller, eBay doesn't have a sorting feature to "show negative reviews" first.  One has to page through the reviews (sorted by date) until you come across a negative one.  Seems like the whole system is stacked in the sellers' favor.

9) PayPal.

I know PayPal offers insurance on problem deals, but I have also heard that credit cards in some cases do not guarantee PayPal payments.  Regardless, it's a perception issue - buying with a credit card is perceived to be safer for the shopper than with PayPal.

10)  "eBay Stores" are a joke.

Seriously, if eBay thinks these sellers are counting on these stores to become a bigger part of their business, they better take some drastic actions.  eBay stores remind me of what happens when young kids are given crayons and a blank sheet of paper - sometimes you get something cute, but more often than not you get scribbles.

So there you have it.  What five years ago shoppers flocked to as a site where one could discover treasures for sale from all over the world, eBay now is a site over-run with poorly organized, poorly designed, and poorly run stores.  The wonder, the surprise, the fun is gone.

Starting today, BeatThat will be displaying a quality score next to Deal-Finders' names.  It will show as a percentage, indicating the number of approved deals divided by the number of submitted deals over the prior 30 days.

We are displaying this with two goals in mind:

1) To help shoppers feel comfortable with a deal (assuming a DealFinder is nearly 100% accurate in their entries);

2) To impress upon DealFinders how important quality of deal submission information really is.

While there are some extra costs to BeatThat in having to review deals and in particular to ferret out bad ones, the real issue here is making sure that 100% of the visible deals on the site are accurate.  It's bad for all of us if a shopper has a negative experience at BeatThat, so we must all work hard to ensure deals are correct.

If you're a DealFinder and you're wondering how your quality score might affect you, we're not sure at the moment.  The BeatThat staff has discussed various ideas, including prizes for DealFinders with the highest ratings, or punishments for DealFinders who have too many deals rejected.  But for the moment, we're just going to watch the data and see if it affects DealFinder behavior.

Thanks for reading and for helping make BeatThat a great site!

David Parker

Founder/CEO

Welcome to BeatThat, where online shoppers can find the Web's lowest prices courtesy of our community of Deal-Finders!

Here's a run-down of most of the key features of the site:

Shopping at BeatThat

If you're shopping, you should find the site REALLY easy to use (or we haven't done our job very well!).  In the upper right-hand corner of every page you can search for a product by name, or click on the product category and then look through the list of products.  Note that it's easy to filter search results by manufacturer, price, and something we're really proud of, merchant color.

Merchants and Their Colors

"What's merchant color?" you ask?  Well, it's BeatThat's way to helping shoppers understand what to expect when they buy a product online.  Like it or not, there are a bunch of online stores that aren't committed to making shoppers happy - they lure you in with super-low prices and then force you to pay them for things you thought were included in the price.  Or they don't provide any reasonable telephone support.  The fact is, shoppers still buy from these merchants, and these stores really do sell products - but it pays to know what to expect. So BeatThat has devised a simple Red/Yellow/Green system of characterising merchants.  Green merchants are top-notch - you shouldn't expect any problems.  Yellow means, keep your eyes open, some shoppers have had problems with them in the past.  Red merchants are ones you need to be careful with - read through other shopper's experiences, maybe call the merchant to verify, or if you just don't think it's going to be worth it, look for another offer from a yellow or green merchant!

Merchant Pages

You can learn about a merchant, and in particular why they are red, yellow, or green, by clicking on the link to them within a deal, or by using the Merchant Lookup link at the top of all pages.

Participate!

BeatThat succeeds when we get a ton of participation from shoppers and deal-finders alike.  So, if you have something to say, get it into the site!  Comments about deals, comments about merchants - we love 'em!  Don't forget you can vote on a deal - "Good deal" or "Bad deal" - click away!  Everyone's experience at the site gets better when there are more comments/votes.

Make Money at BeatThat!

Are you good at finding great deals on the Internet?  Are you interested in making some money for your efforts?  BeatThat pays for every deal on the site!  To get started, you might look over the "Make $" page (link at the top of all pages) first - and then, when you've found a deal, just click the "BeatThat!" graphic on the correct product page (within the top deal) - we've put together a clever process to collect all the right information about your deal, and we double-check your work at the same time.  If we then approve the deal for payment, you'll see it on your Profile Page - and then you'll receive your payment via PayPal at the end of the month!

Watch a Product

Finally, we have a way for you to "watch" a product to see if new deals come in a lower prices.  Just click the "Watch Product" button at the top of a product page, and we'll send you an email when a new deal comes in.

Thanks for Using the Site!

We hope you like the site, and use it for all your product shopping.  If you have a blog or web site, link to us!  Tell your friends about us!

Thanks, and happy shopping-

David Parker, Founder/CEO