BizRate.com Unveils Smiley Scale Ratings & New Best of Breed Features; Announces Profitability.Business Editors LOS LOS Length of stay, see there ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 10, 2002 New Site Makes BizRate.com The Most Useful and Comprehensive Comparison Shopping Site On The Web BizRate.com, the leading comparison shopping site and ecommerce research firm, today announced the launch of a new site in conjunction with news that the company has reached profitability on an EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) A metric used to show a company's profitability, but not its cash flow. EBITDA became popular in the 1980s to show the potential profitability of leveraged buyouts, but has become (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) basis. The new site features a Smiley See emoticon. smiley - emoticon Scale(TM) Merchant Ratings & Reviews system and several other best of breed features including Shipping & Handling and Sales Tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. information, and Consumer Ratings & Reviews of Products. With Web research and comparison shopping becoming a way of life for most online and many offline shoppers, but online fraud also on the rise, the new BizRate.com site becomes a one-stop shopping solution, allowing consumers to confidently comparison shop at over 2,000 merchants for more than 4 million products, verifying ver·i·fy tr.v. ver·i·fied, ver·i·fy·ing, ver·i·fies 1. To prove the truth of by presentation of evidence or testimony; substantiate. 2. store reliability as well as checking for lowest prices. Smiley Scale(TM) Merchant Ratings & Reviews The highlight of BizRate.com's new site is the Smiley Scale(TM), a highly intuitive, user-friendly visualization Using the computer to convert data into picture form. The most basic visualization is that of turning transaction data and summary information into charts and graphs. Visualization is used in computer-aided design (CAD) to render screen images into 3D models that can be viewed from all of BizRate.com's industry-standard merchant ratings. The new icon-based scale literally red flags poorly performing merchants and green lights great merchants, so consumers can, at a glance, know what to expect from a merchant they're thinking about buying from. To make it even simpler, the new site is focused on four ratings chosen to make it easy to quickly separate the good from the not-so-good merchants when shopping online: On-time Delivery; Did Products Meet Your Expectations; Customer Support; and the bottom-line question, Would You Shop Here Again? To answer these important questions, BizRate.com employs the most rigorous and reliable methodology available, allowing its millions of members to provide feedback on its site, as well as using its exclusive point-of-sale network to proactively and continuously solicit feedback from more than 10 million real online shoppers each month at over 2,000 online merchants, immediately after they make their purchases, and via e-mail after expected delivery of goods. This information is summarized for each merchant on an easy-to-use report card where consumers can now see the Smiley Scale(TM) ratings, a three-month merchant performance trending summary, and tens-of-thousands of detailed individual customer comments. "BizRate.com has long stood out for its outstanding methodology and capability in gathering customer satisfaction information. With the Smiley Scale(TM) and new report cards, featuring detailed customer feedback and trending information, we are now, by far, the leader in reporting this information and the best place for consumers to research any online purchase decision, quickly and reliably," said Farhad Mohit, founder and VP of Product Development at BizRate.com. The new site and ratings system couldn't have come at a better time because, while ecommerce is growing at healthy rates of more than 40% year-over-year in the U.S., less than 30% of U.S. Internet users Internet user n → internauta m/f Internet user Internet n → internaute m/f trust Web sites that sell products and services -- a far lower figure than for traditional offline institutions, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. data from independent research group Princeton Survey Research Associates (PRSA PRSA Public Relations Society of America PRSA Personal Retirement Savings Account PRSA Puerto Rican Student Association PRSA Puerto Rican Studies Association PRSA Park and Recreation Service Area PRSA President of the Royal Scottish Academy ). "The lack of trust is for good reason," said Chuck Davis  This article or section contains information about one or more candidates in an upcoming or ongoing election.Content may change as the election approaches. Charles E. , President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of BizRate.com. "Increasingly, as the Web has matured and attracted a mass audience, it has also attracted more and more 'snake-oil' salesmen joining the ranks of legitimate merchants. Our new site, and especially the Smiley Scale(TM), is designed to help consumers easily discern dis·cern v. dis·cerned, dis·cern·ing, dis·cerns v.tr. 1. To perceive with the eyes or intellect; detect. 2. To recognize or comprehend mentally. 3. the good from the bad so they can shop online with confidence." Shipping & Handling and Sales Tax For years, BizRate.com has provided visitors pricing information to go along with merchant ratings. However, in its quest to make comparison shopping even easier and more rewarding, the new BizRate.com site will now provide shipping & handling and sales tax information as part of its calculation of a 'total price.' This feature will help consumers make more meaningful price comparisons before they visit a merchant site and avoid 'sticker shock' at the check out phase, typically one of the major causes of shopping cart abandonment. "Our job is to make it easy for consumers to make informed decisions," said Davis. "For instance, some consumers are unaware they can avoid sales tax through buying out of state, or that shipping and handling charges can vary dramatically from merchant to merchant. Some merchants lure lure the skin-covered object which runs on a monorail on a Greyhound racing track and which the dogs are schooled to chase. The lure must be kept 30 to 40 ft ahead of the leading dog so that the field is stretched out. unwary consumers to their site with low product prices only to make up more than the difference in hidden 'handling' costs. Our new site will make it easy for consumers to detect these costs upfront and make the best decision." Consumer Ratings & Reviews Of Products Before deciding which store to buy from, consumers need to decide what products to buy. By adding tens of thousands of detailed product ratings and reviews, collected from its vast consumer feedback network, BizRate.com now allows the consumer to decide on both products and merchants from its site. "In the past consumers would visit a site like Amazon.com to read consumer reviews of products before coming to BizRate.com to decide which store had the best prices and reliability ratings. With the addition of the product reviews and ratings feature, BizRate.com is truly a one-stop comprehensive resource, for deciding both what to buy and where to buy it," said Mohit. Profitability Along with the release of the new site, BizRate.com is announcing that it is currently cash flow positive, profitable on an EBITDA basis and expecting continued strong growth. "The fact that we're growing very fast and are already profitable on an EBITDA basis, in the slow summer months and before the release of our new features, is testament to the demand for our comparison shopping services and the flawless execution of our business model," said Davis. "We are excited about continuing to grow BizRate.com's momentum by connecting many more millions of ready-to-buy consumers to thousands of online merchants each month." About BizRate.com Founded in 1996 and based in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , BizRate.com (www.bizrate.com) is the leading comparison shopping site on the Web, and a leading provider of e-commerce research. The BizRate.com site offers shoppers best-of-breed comparison shopping features, including user-friendly Smiley Scale(TM) merchant reliability ratings compiled from a vast proprietary feedback network consisting of over 2,000 stores who allow BizRate to solicit direct feedback at the point-of-sale and after fulfillment ful·fill also ful·fil tr.v. ful·filled, ful·fill·ing, ful·fills also ful·fils 1. To bring into actuality; effect: fulfilled their promises. 2. from over 10 million customers each month. In addition to merchant reliability information, BizRate.com offers product specs (SPECificationS) The details of the components built into a device. See specification. , consumer ratings and reviews of products, a comprehensive price comparison, including taxes, shipping and handling, as well as hundreds of special offers across 20 popular shopping categories. Consistently ranked in the top 5 e-commerce sites on the Web, BizRate.com is an EBITDA profitable, privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. . BizRate.com ratings appear on Consumer Reports Online and in Consumer Reports magazine. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion