Purcado announced the official launch of Purcado.com, a comparison shopping website that helps users find the best prices during their footwear search.
Purcado compares more than 50 retail sites in a single search, featuring 1000+ brands, and more than 200,000 product listings. In Beta until today, Purcado has on-boarded popular online and brick-and-mortar retailers including high-end boutiques, athletic, specialty, and large department stores.
A recent study from eMarketer noted that “apparel and accessories are expected this year to overtake computers and consumer electronics as the largest e-commerce category as a percentage of total online sales.” Purcado aims to take advantage of the comparison shopping market, the decline of brick-and-mortar sales, and the one-click buying trend, with their one-stop e-commerce solution for footwear.
“There are lots of places to shop online and find deals, just not enough time in the day to search them all. We built Purcado to save our users’ time, money, and energy by helping them find shoes at the best price, from the best retailers, in an easy-to-use search,” said 26-year-old founder and CEO, Jeff Caudill.
Purcado chooses retail affiliates based on selection and quality, as well as checkout experience, customer service and return policy. Once Purcado has received approval to work with a retailer, they receive data feeds on a daily basis that include inventory from the entire product catalog featured on a retailers’ site. Purcado then displays a single listing for a product that is sold in multiple stores, allowing users to make quick price comparisons. Purcado analysts have seen products with savings of up to 70% in a single listing.
“Our shopping experience is superior to traditional retail shopping sites because we focus on two things: quality by curating the shoes and sites that are presented to our shoppers, and allowing users to quickly compare multiple retail stores in a single listing,” Caudill added.
According to The Atlantic, “the most significant trend affecting brick-and-mortar stores is the relentless march of Amazon and other online retail companies.” They also noted mall visits declined 50 percent between 2010 and 2013. Purcado solves the problem of price comparison: you don’t have to open multiple browsers or hop from store to store to get the best prices from major brands carried by the biggest retail stores and ecommerce sites.
Purcado is working to deliver search personalization, recommendations, and an overall customized experience for each user using advanced artificial intelligence. Based on user feedback and analytics, the site will continue to be optimized with each visit.
Purcado receives commission from each sale which varies by retailer. The company has raised an undisclosed seed round.
