Consumer shopping service PriceSpy launches in Ireland

A new price comparison service is aiming to make online shopping easier for Irish consumers, comparing prices from hundreds of retailers, including homegrown stores.

Swedish-run PriceSpy has established a new Irish website, PriceSpy.ie, and apps for consumers here, with more than 310,000 indexed prices and 112,000 products. The service draws pricing information from around 400 Irish online retailers, with thousands of international shops also included in the service. Prices are updated several times a day, to ensure that they are as up to date as possible.

The free service can be accessed via the website and mobile apps. It’s designed to be transparent, with listings presented in price order. The app, which is available for Android and iOS devices, also includes the ability to scan barcodes to search out the best price on products when shopping in physical stores

Alerts can be set up to notify you when a particular product you are interested in falls in price.

"It feels like there is a gap in the market for consumer products, which is where we come in," Lorna Barker, senior marketing manager for PriceSpy in Ireland and the UK, said. "I think it will cut down on the time people spend trawling through sites looking for the best deal on products."

It will also bring to consumers’ attention smaller retailers that wouldn’t have a large budget for advertising, so may have slipped under the consumers’ radar.

According to a recent study by research firm Amarach for UPC, Irish people will spend €5.9 billion online this year, with that figure rising to €12.7 billion by 2020. However, the majority of this - about 60 per cent - is going to overseas websites, meaning Irish retailers are missing out on billions of euro in sales.

Around 90 per cent of Irish adults say they have done some form of online shopping, with 60 per cent of consumers doing so at least once a month. A large number of consumers are also using the internet to research products before buying, whether it is online or in bricks and mortar stores.

“There is the option to look at international providers, but the first half that you’ll see is always going to be Irish retailers,” said Ms Barker. “I think people have been making an effort to buy Irish and support jobs and businesses at home.

“We hope the Irish market will really embrace it.”

Consumers can also rate the retailers, which Barker says will also help raise the profile of lesser-known retailers.

PriceSpy already operates in the UK, Sweden, Norway and New Zealand, and is run by Prisjakt Sverige. The group is part of Norwegian group media group Schibsted, which also owns DoneDeal.ie.

The company hopes to employ more people in Ireland as the business grows, but at present most of the work is done from Sweden.

Retailers can pay to be featured stores, which gives them access to analytics and allows them to add logos to results. However, featured stores do not get any priority on listings.