KL-based startup iPrice wants to fix most of your e-shopping issues —well, at least they are hoping to make it easier for you to find the products that you would like to buy.
While the sound of yet another Malaysian-based e-commerce startup may sound burdensome to your ears, you should know that iPrice differs from the traditional e-commerce site or app.
It’s Definitely Not Lazada
Launched early 2015, iPrice is supposed to be the one stop place that displays a wide range of products from an array of retailers (mostly, Lazada). The main premise of iPrice doesn’t lie in selling you products from their own inventory but it specialises on product discovery.
So, in simpler terms, if you’re looking for a piece of clothing, a watch and a pair of headphones, instead of going to three different sites that sell you all of the items individually, you can head out to iPrice and find retailers that sell them, all at one place.
Essentially, the premise is to save your time while you’re trying to discover products.
The need for faster product discovery, sale and delivery is something that’s essential and relevant in all of our lives, especially if you’re bogged down with work, play and life in general.
It makes great sense to me, to “help” consumers find products quickly, especially products that they’re willing to pay for, so that they can choose to make a purchase, and instantly return to whatever it is that they are trying to do with their lives.
Maybe I Need A Bit Of Patience?
While I do commend the idea, here’s one thing about the site that bugs the living life out of me, so much so that I feel like pulling my eyes inside out. And that’s the pop-up that shows up every few minutes if you don’t click anything on the site or if you leave to reply an email or a message and return to the iPrice tab on your browser.
Like seriously, how many times do I need to let the site know I’m not interested in signing up for its newsletters and surprise, surprise, I don’t like discounts, offers and promotions.
Knowing that the premise of the site is faster product discovery, I find it quite counter productive that they have a pop-up that doesn’t let me browse the site every few minutes.
On the other hand, you’d notice that the search for items seems much faster on iPrice than it usually does on other e-commerce sites. Most of the time, you will end up finding the products you’re looking, and you’ll quickly notice that Lazada is a common brand that’s present on all if not most categories (Zalora, HappyFresh, Groupon, and Expedia are some of the other brands featured).
And if you try to enter random keywords as a way of having fun with their search feature, know that the results that it shows you will be just as erratic as the keywords you enter.
Here’s my quest for meaning:
While there are other competitors like Pricepanda and Save22, I feel that iPrice is easier and faster to use, has more product offerings, and it definitely has greater potential. But I really, need them to remove the pop-up that appears on their page every few minutes of being idle.
Can They?
As the days go by, there will be plenty of other startups that will enter the world of e-commerce with the hope of becoming the next big thing. iPrice, on the other hand, has strategically positioned itself to be the first site that users could visit while they’re searching for products. While there’s a lot of potential, they still have a long way to go before they become a household brand like say Amazon.com.
In my perspective, they would off to a really great start if they could just get rid of the irritating pop-up (I really hate it, can you tell?).
