PriceWaiter Facilitates Bidding Between Consumers and Brands

PriceWaiter in 2011 was founded by Stephen Culp and Andrew Scarborough as a solution for e-commerce retailers that were struggling with low conversion rates, shopping cart abandonment and minimum advertised pricing and comparison shopping.
The cofounders have launched a marketplace where users can negotiate directly with online retailers, which PriceWaiter said makes the back-and-forth dance over price reductions safer and easier by exposing hidden costs without degrading all prices. The marketplace helps merchants sell more and buyers buy more, and features thousands of products exclusively available at PriceWaiter.com.
“This is our first consumer-facing play,” Scarborough, the company’s chief operating officer, said of the marketplace. “We’re bringing top-rated products from sites we’ve worked with for years. You name the price you’re willing to pay and you have a chance to counter offer. It’s different than eBay in that we’re committed to new products. We’re buying current merchandise from retailers now. When we’re signing up a new retail partner, we make sure they have great customer service and shipping.”
Big retailers have seen conversion rates rise by as much as 30 percent with the PriceWaiter app, the company said. Bidding on a pair of Newton Motion 8 running shoes with an MSRP of $174.95, and

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