GearBuyer.com and GearTrends® partner with unique search and shopping functions

Each month, the most common email and phone request the SNEWS® team fields from GearTrends® customers are queries about where to buy gear from a particular manufacturer. And, the most frequent complaint we have heard about GearTrends® is the inability to take a site visitor from researching product to being able to buy product. We’ve listened, and as a result of our research, are able to provide our site visitors, GearTrends® customers and the industry with what we believe to be the very best solution — GearBuyer.com.

GearBuyer strives to be more then just another price comparison site. Craig Delger, owner of InfoGears.com and Prolitegear.com, and his business partner Rusty Conover noticed that the more they became involved in the outdoor and fitness markets, the more it became evident that it is difficult to get a good snapshot of a particular product at all of the places where it is offered. So, they set out to provide a better means of searching for and ultimately buying product online.

“We decided to develop our technology to go out to online retailers and aggregate their product information. With that information, we have developed a site that makes it easy for the customer to find the product they are looking for at the right price, in the right size, with the right color,” Delger told SNEWS®. “We’ve also provided a way for the customer to discover new products that they may not have known about at all…with no more effort than it takes to make a few mouse clicks.”

What really sets GearBuyer apart is the method in which available products are combined from multiple retailers. GearBuyer just doesn’t list every product from every retailer. Instead, it strives to detect when the same product is being offered on multiple sites, and then creates a product listing that shows all of the retailers carrying that product — including size, color availability and price.

Another differentiation point for GearBuyer is that it is crawler based and not dependent upon retailer inventory feeds. While GearBuyer is set up to allow for direct feeds from any retailer, relying on the crawler method allows GearBuyer to list products from retailers who are not currently offering feeds of their products. This provides a much wider view of the marketplace, and gives customers a much better representation of the online inventory of outdoor and fitness products. While the inventory displayed is not real time, it is pretty close.

Unlike existing e-commerce sites and search engines, GearBuyer’s depth of products listed allows customers to explore a wide range of products available from the outdoor and fitness industry, rather than experiencing the frustration and ineffectiveness of hit-and-miss searches and multiple page visits.

GearBuyer is adding retailers weekly to its database. As it crawls each of those retailers, it collects data not only on brand and product availability, but pricing, sizing and more, which the consumer can view all on one page for each product listed. A customer searching for “Product A” in size small will be able to find that product, and then, if available at multiple retailers, be able to see which colors are available, and at what prices. Then, they can buy the product from the retailer offering what they need. This method provides a more efficient shopping experience for customers looking to purchase gear.

GearBuyer also allows manufacturers to offer a quick way for potential customers to see the broadest representation of products in one location — using the power of multiple retailers. This helps the customer go directly to a retailer that has exactly what they are looking for from a particular brand.

Also, when a potential customer clicks the “Buy Now” button from GearTrends®, they will be taken to a page on GearBuyer.com that features all of the manufacturer’s products, possibly exposing customers to products they might not have been aware of and might be interested in buying.

As a benefit to the manufacturer, GearBuyer provides a quick way to survey product availability from retailers selling online, along with the ability to monitor pricing — both its own and its competitors. GearBuyer is working with GearTrends® to offer additional features to manufacturers, such as viewing demand and referral information for particular products and product groups.

GearBuyer will work directly with manufacturers to either add retailers with affiliate programs that the manufacturer recommends or, if a manufacturer has its own affiliate site, GearBuyer will set up a direct selling feature. Naturally, both GearBuyer.com and GearTrends® would prefer to work with retailers whenever possible to support the growth of the specialty retail market. Getting listed by GearBuyer.com is open to any retailer and there is no charge. The only requirement is that you, naturally, have to sell online and that you have an affiliate program established — the GearBuyer folks do have to make a bit of money to pay for their efforts after all. Send an email to gearbuyer@snewsnet.com for more information.

Manufacturers wanting to ensure they get noticed in GearTrends®, and ultimately linked to GearBuyer.com with a “Buy Now” button for improved customer visibility, should contact us directly at listme@snewsnet.com.