Become a participating retailer!

Official statistics from the Internet Telecommunication Union state that internet penetration in Mauritius was 29.69% as at June 2009 (www.internetworldstats.com/africa.htm#mu). Their figures confirm those provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Compareprices.mu expects about 50,000 'unique visitors' per month. Google Analytics tracks the number of 'unique visitors' by their IP address, which means that 3 people visiting the website but who live in the same house or share the same network will count as 1 visitor. Therefore, let's assume that in one household or place of work, at least 2-3 people visit compareprices.mu every month. This means that we are expecting to reach about 120,000 people every month (which is roughly 10% of the population).

Showcasing your products on compareprices.mu gives your company greater benefits than just advertising a few products on other media. Some of the advantages here include:

• 10% of the population can view 100% of your products as there is no time restraint. The average time per visit on compareprices.mu is 7 minutes whereas a TV/radio spot is aired for about 15 seconds.
• People who go on compareprices.mu are potential buyers whereas people who hear/see an ad elsewhere may have no interest at all in the products that you are advertising. Therefore, the % reach can be lower in quantity but much higher in quality as the visitors themselves have chosen to see your products.
• Collective decisions can be made. E.g. at any time, parents can go on compareprices.mu to check out the deals before buying a mobile phone that their child has requested. It does not involve the visit of every interested person to your store and therefore reduces the time spent between looking for a product and buying it. If your business has an online store, visitors can even be redirected to your website to make their purchases.
• People who are busy at work can check compareprices.mu during lunch break instead of having to come to your stores during the weekend. Compareprices.mu receives the highest number of its visitors during lunch break (i.e. from noon to 2p.m.).
• No production cost, as compared to Rs. 300,000 on average for producing a TV spot.
• You can update the product information and upload new products as often as you like. On the other hand, if you want to advertise different products every week on TV/radio/press, you will have to pay the design/production costs for every new advertisement.
• Marketing accountabilitiy is hard to calculate, given that you cannot assert how many people have purchased your products due to your advertisements. But on compareprices.mu, you can check the rate of response by viewing real time data about the number of clicks obtained on your products. The number of clicks does not show how many people have seen your products, but how many people, after seeing your products among other products, have been interested enough to click on your products to obtain further information such as descriptions, specifications, after-sales facilities, etc.
• Long-term marketing. Showcasing your products on compareprices.mu is a step towards building a closer relation with customers. This is because you are aiding the customers in their decision-making process as you allow them to compare your products with those of retailers. More than just a lowest price strategy, it becomes a customer-centred strategy.