Internet Research
Shopping for stuff on the Web? Have you tried using BizRate? Bizrate is a shopping portal that scientifically surveys Web shoppers to get their ratings of online merchants. Bizrate surveys merchants' customers along 10 dimensions in order to construct the Bizrate ratings. The dimensions include ease of ordering, product selection, and price. The merchants voluntarily participate in this program and the aggregate results are published on Bizrate's Web site. Epinions.com publishes "reviews" about products by consumers. Visit Bizrate at www.bizrate.com and Epinions at www.epinions.com and complete the following table.
| Bizrate | Epinions | |
| Collect data about merchants (circle yes/no?) | Yes or No | Yes or No |
| Collect data about products (circle yes/no?) | Yes or No | Yes or No |
| Use random sample (circle yes/no?) | Yes or No | Yes or No |
| Who gets surveyed? | List: | List: |
| Survey administered at time of purchase? (circle yes/no?) |
Yes or No |
Yes or No |
| What is the privacy policy? | List: | List: |
For Discussion
1. Locate a copy of Bizrate's Point-of-Sale Survey on its site. What is the purpose of this survey?
2. Locate the Follow-Up Survey. Define a research problem that an online company might have to warrant this particular survey research.
3. What incentive do merchants have to participate in BizRate's program?
4. Are BizRate and Epinions competitors or complementary services? Explain.
5. Which site has a better privacy policy? Explain.
6. Which data do you believe to be more reliable? Why?
7. Which data do you find more helpful? Why?
Copyright 2001 Timothy C. Johnston. Adapted from E-Marketing, Strauss & Frost, 2001.