Become.com Launches ‘Nearby Stores’ Feature
New shopping tool helps customers search online, buy offline
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – August 3, 2006 –Become.com, the only vertical search engine to combine Web-wide product-focused search with comparison shopping, today announced its “Nearby Stores” feature that allows customers to research and buy products from both online sources and local retail outlets. Launched with over 30,000 retail locations, “Nearby Stores” listings include dynamic Yahoo! Maps™ so shoppers can visually locate the closest merchants. Become.com is the only fully integrated online source for product research and comparison shopping, offering more than 20 million products from 5000 merchants. Become will showcase “Nearby Shopping” and its other site innovations at the Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose, California from August 7-10 at booth 130.
“Many customers have told us they like researching products online but then see them in person before purchasing,” said Become.com Founder, President and CEO Michael Yang. “We are really excited to offer this new option to make it easy to find and map directions to the closest retail shops, saving customers time, money and gasoline.”
Dozens of brand name retailers, representing 30,000 local locations are already featured on the site. All of Become.com’s merchant partners can participate in the Nearby Stores program, thus expanding their offline -- as well as online -- presence with Become.com’s millions of shoppers.
To find local merchants, Become.com visitors simply choose the item they want to purchase such as “digital camera,” click on the “compare prices” button and input their zip code. Nearby Stores are indicated on the far right column with a link to detailed store information, including addresses, telephone numbers, hours of operation and maps.
“Become.com’s fundamental mission is to empower customers to make better buying decisions by providing the best of product research and comparison shopping in one easy to use, convenient site. Our Nearby Stores feature is a great addition to our customer-focused service,” Yang added.
Become.com’s fully integrated search and shopping service stands out in a market saturated with general search engines that deliver increasingly irrelevant results and with comparison shopping sites that only provide price information without comprehensive product reviews.
About Become.com
Become.com is a powerful product search engine and comparison shopping service. Founded by industry pioneers Michael Yang and Yeogirl Yun, creators of MySimon, Become.com helps people make better buying decisions and purchases online. Become.com searches over 3.2 billion web pages and uses its patent-pending AIR (Affinity Index Ranking) search technology to provide the Internet’s most useful product reviews and guides, and then makes it easy find and buy products from brand name retailers at the best prices. With over 20 million products from 5000 merchants, Become.com provides the Web’s most robust and easy to use combination of relevant product research and product availability. Please visit us at http://www.become.com.