by Caitlyn Nicole Yew & Hardip Singh Rekhraj
Everybody loves to shop, especially when the best deals are in town! However, even online bargain hunting can be cumbersome and frustrating to avid shoppers, as it involves scouring the web for hours in search of good promotions and discounts.
The constant morphing and expansion of the retail landscape in Malaysia also make it difficult to compare prices between merchants and smaller outlets, often leading to consumers settling for less, especially with consumer electronic goods.
Recognising this problem is PriceShop, a homegrown Malaysian startup that aims to defragment product information and pricing of consumer electronics on its website to ease the shopping experience.
Having only launched in Malaysia 18 months ago and supported by Hong Kong’s top price comparison platform, Price, PriceShop’s easy-to-navigate website is rapidly gaining traction with consumers who can get aggregated prices and product details of electronics sold by offline and online merchants.
Easily obtain real-time price information from online & offline merchants
“Through our website’s unique structure and technology, we aim to bring consumers, brands, and verified sellers together and make shopping an enjoyable experience. As online scams are rife these days, we provide peace of mind to shoppers by onboarding verified merchants and then list the closest merchants to the consumer’s location,” said the general manager of PriceShop, Joshua Lin.
Unlike other price comparison platforms that allow consumers to purchase directly from the same website, PriceShop directs its users straight to the merchants’ official store on Lazada or Shopee, or even to merchants’ Whatsapp business accounts. Users then have the option to click on the merchants’ bio page to get more information such as addresses, e-mails, and phone numbers to arrange an in-store visit.
Digitalising Fliers
Where paper fliers were a common sight in postboxes, PriceShop adopts a more sustainable and dynamic approach as prices are updated daily on the website. With a growing list of 300 retail shops in Klang Valley, the team at PriceShop works hard to post over 40,000 prices covering 41 product categories, ranging from mobile phones, computers and home appliances.
At present, there are 1.5 million active users on the PriceGuide platform, who not only enjoy the ease of shopping but are kept up-to-date on the latest news pertaining to a wide range of gadgets and lifestyle trends.
PriceShop to find the best deals before settling for less
Moving Forward with PriceShop
PriceShop’s next step is fortifying its latest initiative on product warranty. They recently launched their PriceCare programme, a first in the market where consumers who purchase products with verified merchants can get up to RM500 in out-of-warranty repair claims, 6 months after the official warranty has ended. All consumers have to do to receive this reimbursement is simply submit proof of their purchase within 60 days of purchasing from a PriceShop seller with a PriceCare badge.
In the near future, PriceShop’s mission is to have over 300 retailers on PriceCare by 2023 to serve an expanding customer base of 500,000. With even bigger plans ahead and expansion over the horizon, PriceShop seeks to acquire merchants from Penang and Johor to grow the PriceShop family.
This article is contributed by Venturous PR, a student-led communications agency from Taylor’s University, School of Media & Communication (SOMAC). As an entrepreneurial sandbox for senior PR undergraduates, Venturous PR strives to make innovative communication solutions accessible to Startups and SMEs. The project is part of Business Today’s social engagement initiative with PR students to promote ethical journalism. This Startup is part of MDEC’s Malaysia Digital Hub Community, which provides impactful intervention to facilitate growth of local tech companies.
