jCompare – Find and Compare Items in One Location
There are a lot of comparison sites out there and there are even more shopping sites. Finding stuff you’re looking for isn’t always easy, especially when you have to go from one site to the next looking for the best price. Even then, you don’t always know the shipping costs, which can make a difference as to who has your item for less.
A new startup, jCompare.com, wants to change that and make your comparison shopping and bargain hunting easier. Best of all, the site is free and doesn’t even require a login for basic use.
Going to the site, you’re greeted with a simple, no-nonsense screen. No sales text, no multiple links to About and FAQ pages you don’t need, and no fuss. Just a 4-button nav bar and a search box. Easy. You can Login/Register if you’d like to save your Comparison and Wishe Lists. You can also sign up for Alerts to have new, low-priced items automatically sent to your inbox.
The search is where it’s at, though. Just enter an item (say “diapers” for example) and hit Go. A list of matched results from various shopping portals around the Web are presented. They are sorted by relevance at default, but can be changed to lowest or highest-priced. Hovering your mouse over each result gives you further options such as adding it to your compare list, your wish list, etc. Clicking on an item shows you the details: where it’s located, it’s base price, estimated shipping, and estimated retail price. From there, you can click the Buy Now button and go to the retailer to purchase directly.
That, in a nutshell, is how jCompare works. Most of the items are at Buy.com, eBay, and other popular outlets. jCompare obviously monetizes through affiliate sales from their search results when you click. The relevance of the item you’re looking for isn’t always exact, but you can narrow searches in various ways (adding keywords, adding manufacturer names, etc.) to find what you’re looking for. That would be true of any search engine.
Overall, jCompare is a great site for comparison shopping. Although it’s in a crowded field of similar style sites, it has speed, and amazing staff, and simplicity going for it. Definitely a startup to watch.
