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The Web is full of sites that aggregate prices and product reviews to help shoppers figure out what to buy. But one startup - Retrevo in Sunnyvale - has gone a step beyond that, naming the most sought-after consumer electronics products of 2008 and predicting the winners and losers in 2009. more |
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Market tracker Retrevo says flat-panel TV prices dropped 35% in 2008, and that still wasn't enough to get shoppers to seriously open their wallets. Retrevo predicts we'll see 50-inch high-definition TVs selling for less than $800; now, they still top $1,000. more
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With more cellphone manufacturers and auto makers including GPS capabilities as a basic feature, there’s less incentive for companies to develop standalone models, says Vipin Jain, CEO of electronics price-tracking site Retrevo. He expects clearance-level sales on many models. more |
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“Once the new models are announced, the old models get deeply discounted,” says Vipin Jain, CEO of Retrevo, an electronics price-tracking site. Sales get better still as the Super Bowl approaches. If you’re really not in a rush for a new set, wait until mid-2009 for a thinner, cheaper, and sharper set with more bells and whistles. Among the prospective debuts at CES, Samsung is expected to offer a television with built-in connectivity for your computer and other electronics, eliminating the need for a device like Apple TV ($229). “You can just stream and interact,” says Jain. more
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IT HAS been a gloomy autumn for retailers selling television sets, audio gear and other consumer electronics. Demand for such goods, according to Retrevo, a search and shopping site, has headed steadily south since last summer. It spiked in late November (the traditional start of the holiday shopping season) as bargain-hunters knocked down doors to snap up one-time offers, then promptly fizzled out again. more
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There are people who love shopping for new electronics. And then there is everyone else.
Retrevo Inc., which wins an honorable mention in the Search category, steps in as surprisingly useful for both. The company provides an impartial shopping search service that slices through esoteric tech talk to help consumers find the right product at the right price. more
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The renewed focus on home entertainment is like "that Shirley Temple effect from the Depression, when everyone went out and escaped to Shirley Temple movies," said Andrew Eisner, director of community at Retrevo, a specialized online search engine for consumer technology purchases. "This time, they're playing games and watching Blu-ray movies." more
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"We saw demand plummeted across the board in October," said Vipin Jain, chief executive of Retrevo, a commercial Web site where users can research and comparison shop for a variety of consumer electronics. While activity remained slow through much of November, he said, "then we saw on Thursday, the demand just picked up." more
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HDTV’s were the hot item this season, thanks to prices that literally nosedived. According to Retrevo (see disclosure below), a Sunnyvale, Calif-based company that tracks the consumer electronics market, by Black Friday, interest in HDTVs had surged by more than 250 percent compared to interest at the beginning of November. Indeed, Samsung’s LN52A650 52" LCD TV was the fourth best-selling product over the web on Black Friday, according to PriceGrabber. more
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"Retrevo is devoted solely to electronics and can search reviews, store pricing and more." more
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What's also interesting about these charts is that Retrevo is putting them on its public-facing site, and for no charge. Usually you'd see a consumer-facing company like this take these interesting data sets and sell them out the back door to manufacturing and retail companies. But those firms probably already know what they're in store for, and aren't about to spend additional money to be told again. So instead, Retrevo is showing the users themselves what they are not buying, in hopes that more people will use the site, and keep traffic (and thus monetization) up during what is sure to be a gloomy holiday for tech. more
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Vipin Jain, chief executive of Retrevo.com, an online electronics marketplace headquartered in Sunnyvale, said consumer electronics was a $160 billion market in the United States last year. It had been projected to grow to $170 billion, but based on the behavior of the 2.5 million people who visit the site each month, Jain thinks the sector will instead see sales slump.
"This year we are not going to grow (as an industry); we will shrink a little," Jain said.
His evidence? In the first half of the year Jain detected a slowdown in interest in cameras, camcorders and GPS systems. By the end of September the malaise had reached HDTVs, which had been strong until then.
Jain said that so far two items have bucked this downward trend: laptops and digital photo frames. more
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Retrevo is sort of a hybrid of reviews and general product information (product manuals, etc.). The site is completely intuitive, and while its presentation of data might not be everyone’s favorite cup of tea, its gets the job done.... more
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Two years after Merriam-Webster formally recognized "google" as a transitive verb, consumers are recognizing the limitations of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or Ask.com, whose "horizontal" searches deliver vast breadth of information but not much depth. Increasingly, people are "drilling down" into highly detailed and structured sites like Retrevo for consumer electronics; Trulia and Zillow for real estate; SimplyHired and Indeed for jobs; Kayak, Farechase and Farecast for travel, and so on... more
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PC World is partnering with Retrevo of Sunnyvale, CA to provide a wealth of technology and consumer electronics product information to complement PC World's award-winning editorial. "Providing easy access to a wide array of content that Retrevo analyzes and organizes helps make sense of a sometimes overwhelming amount of product information..." more
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PC World has partnered with Retrevo to syndicate rival product reviews and comparisons alongside editorial on its website [and] will exclusively promote ad programs for Retrevo's website.... more
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“For advertisers, Retrevo is attractive to technology marketers who want to reach users ready to make a purchase...” more
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“It's clear that Retrevo is a site that's attracting tech buyers, and our ad partners are looking for tech buyers, and this allows us to extend the value we provide to our ad relationships..." more
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There’s nothing else quite like Retrevo. It’s a matchmaking service for consumers and electronics that makes finding, buying and using electronics products simple and fun. It’s also a service that uses Artificial Intelligence technology to impartially analyze and aggregate 40 different categories, 200,000 products, millions of features, hundreds of thousands of prices and more than 6.5 million user and expert reviews and articles... more
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