Price Tracking Service Shopobot Raises Funding From Google Ventures, AOL And Others

Leena Rao

Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

tracking service Shopobot has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Google Ventures, AOL Ventures, Lucas Nealan, Jump Ventures and several other strategic investors.

Shopobot, which was part of the second class of AngelPad startups, aims to give shoppers more transparency for price fluctuations on products online. It is not uncommon for retailers to change their prices several times in the course of a week, or put items on sale and unless you are checking the product every day, you don’t know when these changes are taking place.

Shopobot analyses price data to make recommendations on where to buy specific products and users can follow products they’re interested in, and get alerts when Shopobot finds a great deal or steep price fluctuation. The site will also send you refund alerts if the price drops after a purchase and gives users access to interactive price graphs that show how prices have been changing at top stores (i.e. Amazon).

For example, if you are looking for a digital camera that currently sells for $399 on Amazon, Shopobot will show you that the price changed seven times over the past two weeks. For now, Shopobot can track cameras, consumer electronics, laptops, video games and books but will soon add functionality for sports equipment and appliances.

Shopobot is similar to airfare price tracker Yapta, but for retail products. Considering the fluctuations that take place on sites like Amazon or other retailers, Shopobot could provide a very desirable service it expands to a number of verticals beyond just electronics.

Disclosure: TechCrunch is an AOL property.

Website: shopobot.com
Launch Date: January 2011

Shopobot (now DailyCred) helps users purchase expensive items like DSLR cameras, cycling equipment, or baby gear. Shopobot discovers experts in the user’s social graph to provide advice from friends and trusted sources. Shopobot’s price index crawler monitors prices across many stores and tells users the best time to buy an item. This technology is also used by a growing network of review sites to replace low performing price widgets. The CTR on Shopobot’s widget yields over 5 times the industry...

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