Find bargains with shopbots
Sean Brodrick

If online shopping is the wave of the future, shopbots are your own personal surfboard.

There are so many places to shop on the Web. Trying to find the best price can be an exercise in frustration. What to do?

The answer: Let a shopbot do the work for you. These programs, also known as shopping agents, search out a list of prices on a particular product. More advanced shopbots will detail shipping costs and times. Some even tell you which e-tailers are naughty and which are nice.

"Shopbots are great for consumers looking for a deal," says Seema Williams, an analyst for Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. "I expect people to start using them more and more."

Best-kept secret

Marcus Zillman, chief executive officer of Bot Technology Inc. in Marco Island, Fla., goes further, "Shopbots are the little retailer's worst nightmare because they force merchants to underbid each other.

"Shopbots are one of the Internet's best-kept secrets. But if people understand how to use a search engine, they can use a shopbot. And they should be using them," he adds.

First, some facts: Not all shopping bots are created equal.

"There are two kinds of bots," says Zillman, who created a Web site, BotSpot, which lists different the types of Internet agents. "A closed-system bot works with retailers that have signed up with it. An open-system bot searches the entire Web."

Two good open-ended bots are Mata Hari and Bullseye. These are advanced programs, allowing Boolean terms such as "or, not, and, before" as well as phrases and expressions to be included in your query. That means you can really narrow your search.

"If I have some time and I want the lowest price, I'll use Bullseye," Zillman says. "I call that one 'The Truth Squad' because it will find the true low price."

Scary stuff

The downside is you have to download these bots to your computer, which scares off novice computer users and reluctant e-shoppers. Plus, the first 30 days of use are free, but after that you'll have to pay. The cost will vary.

Rather than have you deal with the scary stuff, we'll cover the bots for novices. What you need to know is that a shopping bot is a lot like a search engine. When you type the name of what you're looking for (i.e. "notebook computer") in a search window, the shopbot ferrets out merchants and prices and then returns with a list. The shopping agents Bankrate.com will review have their own Web sites and are free, or the membership fee is optional.

If you find shopping on the Internet a little overwhelming, and fear that you could push the wrong button and buy an aircraft carrier with your Visa card, you've come to the right place.

What to look for

Since we're dealing on a basic level, the next question is: what makes a good shopbot?

Zillman identifies the basic criteria:

• User-friendly. The bot must be convenient to use

• No problems. Some shopbots crash older systems

• Current info on what is available at what price

• A decent comparison of selections of the same product.

In addition, Forrester Research analyst Williams says you should ask these questions:

• Does the shopbot include shipping and tax, if applicable, in its price?

• Does it tell you how reputable a particular dealer is?

• Does the shopbot have a good range of merchants?

The range of merchants is key to getting a good price. For instance, when you're hunting for books, some shopbots will check out the prices at popular Web merchants like Amazon and Barnes&Noble, but, ironically, not Borders.

"Every closed-ended shopbot has its own retailers, which are like its masters," Zillman explains.

Most powerful tool

The problems come when a merchant pays the shopbot a fee so when you search for a particular item, say, "Cigars," that particular retailer always comes up on top. Some users might think the price on top is the cheapest when it just ain't so.

So consumers should take shopbots with a grain of salt. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't use them, says Jack Gillis, director of public affairs for the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C.

"There's absolutely no question in our mind that the Internet represents the most powerful bargaining chip consumers have had in the history of shopping," Gillis explains. "On the other hand, this tool we use to empower ourselves can be used to mislead us."

Gillis says that in a recent study, the CFA found that the price of a digital video disc player could vary as much as $100 at the same Internet merchant. It depends on whether you found the price through a shopping link on a Web page or through a shopbot search engine.

Ship-ship, oy vey!

Gillis also warns that many sites dish up products and prices without shipping costs added in. To get those costs, you have to type in your name and address on an order form.

"Shipping charges are often not disclosed until the very last minute," he says. "And if you decide for some reason not to go with the order, you can't retract your own information.

"And then when you add in the shipping cost of the product, it dramatically rearranges which was the best price on the original search."

For this reason, Gillis recommends that when you buy online, you should conduct at least three searches.

Savings add up

With problems like this, some consumers might wonder why bother with shopbots at all. If you know what you want, why add an extra layer of technology? Well, as an example, a shopbot search found Patricia Cornwall's latest book for $2.60 less -- including shipping -- than you'd pay at Amazon.com. If you buy a few books, those savings add up quickly.

That's why Bankrate.com has pitted the shopbots against each other in a rock 'em, sock 'em bargain hunt. We found shopbots that tell you the total price, including shipping and handling, and those that tell you very little at all. We found shopbots that update their database of prices while you wait, and shopbots that change prices with glacial slowness. In short, we did the research so you can tell the good and the bad from the downright ugly.

We've studied shopbots ranging from the well known (mySimon and Bottomdollar) to lesser known but incredibly useful (DealPilot and PriceSCAN). We've judged them according to ease of use, lowest price, number of merchants searched, amount of information on each item (extra points for shipping cost, discounts, etc.) and the intangibles that make a site a pleasure or a pain to use.

There are so many types of shopbots, we're running our reviews over three days. First, we'll reveal our favorite book and music shopbots. The next day, we'll take you to the top shopbots for computer hardware and peripherals. And on the last day, we'll tell you which bots are best for general use.

In the process, we will save you time, money and hassles, which are what shopbots and Web-based merchants are all about.

So start your modems, folks -- get ready to shop till you bot!

-- Posted: Nov. 22, 1999