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Fagan, Suzanne (2016) Technical Report: BagItIreland.com. Undergraduate thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.
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Abstract
The main objective of BagIt was to develop a web application to help consumers get the right product at the best price. The average consumer will price check all
major retailers when purchasing an electrical appliance. This includes checking retailers sites individually and calling into different stores one by one. Customers
often struggle to get the correct advice from sales assistants due to high staff turnover in stores, commission and stores being out of stock on certain products but still wanting to make a sale. BagIt quickly retrieves product information with a quick scan of a QR Code. This takes the ease out of manually searching for products, and allows for ease of comparison of product specs.
I thought of the idea of BagIt while working part time as a rep for Dyson. I was placed in different stores and at different events most weeks and I quickly picked up on issues for consumers and retailers. In my case, I was only responsible for Dyson products in store. Dyson regulate their prices so all retailers will usually have the same price for Dyson. However consumers, including myself, usually have very little trust in sales staff. I regularly encountered customers falling in love with a product, spending on average 10 minutes asking everything they can
think of and trying it out. They will then leave to check if the neighbouring stores have the product for cheaper, as they simply didn’t believe all stores will have it for the same price. When they arrive at the last store and discover the price is the same they will usually purchase it there. While the customer has reasurance that they could not have gotten their product for cheaper it is a long process that can be shortened through the BagIt application. Ensuring the customer saves time and the retailer who spends the most time looking after the customer gets the sale.
In the case of products that are not regulated I noticed that all the major electronic retailers will price match their competitors if they have a lower price. Retailers would rather drop their price by a few euro than lose out on a sale. However in most cases the prices were kept the same across all retailers. When one retailer lowers their prices, others usually follow the same day.
As well as price comparison, BagIt retrieves product specifications with a simple scan or search. Retailers locations are displayed at the bottom of the results page using Google Maps API. This gives the capability of checking both the best price and the closest retailer who stocks the product in the one place. BagIt can also be accessed on a mobile device and thus used in store. Before deciding to purchase an item, customers can very easily and conveniently check if another store nearby has the same product for a better price, All without leaving the first
store or their home.
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