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TrackIf helps consumers track prices online [Star Tribune (Minneapolis) :: ](Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 30--More than 9,000 people are tracking the prices on various KitchenAid mixers through TrackIf, an online service that started last year in Minnetonka. And about the same number of shoppers are using the tool to keep tabs on the Canon PowerShot digital camera. When the price drops on those items, they get an e-mail alert from TrackIf. They can also be notified when a coveted handbag or toy comes back in stock or when their favorite designer brand adds a new item. But TrackIf doesn't just monitor products. It also tags vacations, job postings and houses. It tracks more than 2.5 million items on about 1,600 websites including the likes of Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy. "It's like a reverse search engine," said Doug Berg, the founder of TrackIf. "It's me running around putting Post-it notes on stuff and letting the Web come to me, instead of me always having to waste my time looking for stuff." The advent of e-commerce has ushered in a new era of transparency in which comparing prices is just a few clicks away. For some time, Web tools have helped consumers find the lowest price on a certain item at any given moment. TrackIf is part of a newer crop of websites and apps that are indexing the web to track the movement of prices. They provide historical price data and alert shoppers when items they've been eyeing go on sale or become available for purchase. Nifti, Camelcamelcamel, PoachIt, and WorthIt are some of the other competitors in this space. One of the most well-known price trackers was Hukkster, a company that folded earlier this month after burning through its cash. That New York-based start-up had raised about $4.5 million and drew high-profile investors such as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who famously sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. But while TrackIf is not as well known, Berg has already raised about $4 million for the company, mostly from angel investors in two rounds of funding. He hopes to avoid some of the pitfalls of Hukkster by bringing in money not just from affiliate sales when a user buys something from a website but also by convincing retailers to embed his technology into their websites. "I've done two other pretty large start-ups here in Minneapolis, so I know how to do the black magic of member acquisition and cost control," he added. TrackIf, which is supported by a team of about 20 people, has already reached more than 400,000 users mostly through word of mouth. The company has also been working diligently on search-engine optimization so the website might pop up when people are searching for items on Google and by reaching out to mommy bloggers. Berg, a serial entrepreneur, founded Techies.com, a job recruitment company that raised more than $100 million and nearly went public during the first Internet craze that ended in 2001. The company closed a few years later. Berg later co-founded Jobs2Web Inc., which made job recruitment software for companies such as 3M and Best Buy. It was acquired in 2011 for $110 million. "But I always thought in my mind, 'Wow, the shopping world has the same problem that the career world has, which is that most people who visit sites don't buy stuff,'" he said. On top of that, companies spend a lot of money these days subscribing to dynamic pricing engines that provide real-time data on price fluctuations on their competitors' websites. "But the consumer doesn't know what is going on with a price tag on a given day," Berg said. "This really gives the consumer access to the same data and levels the playing field for them." But he sees it not just as a solution for shoppers. His pitch to companies is that it can help them capture sales that it might otherwise lose to competitors. Since January, TrackIf has been marketing its technology to retailers as something they can embed in their websites. It already has signed on about 10 clients. On the iRobot website, the home of the Roomba, customers can add an item to its shopping cart or e-mail it to a friend. But now there's also a button, powered by TrackIf, that allows them to add that item to a "watch list" so the company can send that customers price alerts and special promotion in the hopes of clinching that sale when the customer is ready -- and likes the price. TrackIf is also being used on Neiman Marcus' Last Call clearance website to allow customers to track items by their favorite designer brands. Berg also sees opportunities for retailers to use his data to find out who may be shopping for an item on a competitor's website and to send those people targeted offers to try to win that sale. Kim Garretson, co-founder of the Minneapolis digital retail consultant Ovative/group, said he is impressed by TrackIf and may become an adviser. The challenge for TrackIf, he said, is to attract big retailers who have many other digital projects in the works. Berg said retailers aren't brushing him off. "Love me or hate me, there's a lot of reasons for them to like this technology," he said. "They know this stuff is on the market, and they are trying to figure out how to integrate it to make it a part of their life." Kavita Kumar -- 612-673-4113 ___ (c)2014 the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) Visit the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) at www.startribune.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |