Price comparison site Decide.com has raised $8 million, bringing its total funds to $17 million, the company announced today. It will use the money to expand its price comparisons into new e-commerce categories and to hire technical staff, Decide says.
Vulcan Capital led the Series C funding round, which also included current investors Maveron LLC and Madrona Venture Group LLC, the company says. “We believe Decide.com's big data approach to monitoring and analyzing product price volatility is poised to disrupt the e-commerce market and deliver huge value to consumers,” says Steve Hall, a Vulcan Capital investor.
This month Hall joined Decide’s board of directors, along with Dawn Lepore, former CEO of Drugstore.com Inc., Decide says. Walgreen Co., No. 33 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, acquired Drugstore.com in 2011.
Decide monitors millions of user reviews and reports across retail and consumer review sites, such as PC Magazine’s PCMag.com and CBS Interactive’s CNet.com. The company then mines the data to give members timely, objective recommendations about what to buy and when to buy it, according to CEO Mike Fridgen. The company’s price predictions have been 80% correct and have helped consumers save $200 million since launching in 2011, it says.
Decide also monitors retailers’ re-pricing behaviors. Fridgen says that the most volatile retailers in that regard, without specific numbers, are: Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide; Buy.com Inc., No. 36; J&R Electronics Inc., No. 119; Walmart.com, No. 4; Best Buy Co., No. 11 and Sears Holdings Corp., No. 8.
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