At a time when all online retail biggies such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazonrun big discount sales, how do you make sure you’re getting the best price for a product you plan to buy? A growing number of internet shoppers are turning to price comparison portals to check out the best deals. Aggregators such as mysmartprice. com, buyhatke.com and 91mobiles. com say the number of visitors to their sites and gross merchandise value of sales through their links have doubled in a matter of days, which may have boosted their own valuations.These sites get a small share of their users’ purchases from online retailers as commission, which, according to industry sources, varies from 3-4 per cent in the case of mobile phones and electronics to 10 per cent for apparel and home furnishing. Besides comparing prices on different online shops, most of these sites provide mobile phone-specific information, availability of EMI facility and cash on delivery, and even offer cash-back on purchases.
“Valuation depends on two parties involved as well,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder CEO at Greyhound Research. “While user base and GMV are certainly linked, a sudden spike in user base or traffic cannot singularly improve valuations but if it becomes a standard (for the site), then it makes sense.”