Surprised they didn't do this on relaunch night ...

[PJ.]

Mike Mason "Here at Bid we noticed how you didn't like the fact we used to flap around with the price and wanted to just know the final price, the sort of price which is ideal for you, so let me present two new channels to you, Ideal Price and Ideal Bid. Please note the names are in no way a desperate bid to impress our new backers"


:mysmilie_13:

PJ

 

[Price Plunge]

Last week I was watching Shop at Bid then changed channels to Ideal World, and it was amazing how little difference there is now between the two channels. Ideal World has slightly different graphics but essentially they're displaying the same information in the same places (oh look they're using six digit item numbers as well), and IW even had Paul Becque presenting at that time (who of course used to present on Price-drop TV). On top of this there's also now some product crossover which makes the waters even muddier for both of them (some of IW's management team must be privately fuming at this). Perhaps Bid's thinking of bringing back buyers' names to help differentiate itself from Ideal World?

Also another question yet to be answered, namely could the success/failure of Shop at Best of Bid also impact upon Ideal World at some point? If Bid goes into slow failure mode, could this also drag down Ideal World's 'reputation' in the process of doing so? Regular IW buyers may say 'No' but I'm thinking more along the lines of casual viewers who make very occasional purchases.

 

[Greg]

I think there are some main differences here between Shop at Bid and Ideal World.

1) The quality of the products. A lot of the brands at Ideal World are long established and some of it is very well known. Bid are relying much on generic items and 'brands' no-one has heard of.

2) Because of the general low quality of the goods, the presenters at Bid have to rely on incredible amounts of hyperbole to sell their sh*t. Ideal World presenters come across as far more knowledgeable an d professional in their presentations.

3) Ideal World have maintained a sense of trustworthiness by engaging with their customers. Shop at Bid's approach is to rip buyers off with cheap crap with huge mark-ups, a dreadful record of poor compliance with the ASA, extortionate postage and package charges but with the worst delivery schedules out of all the shopping channels.

I don't think it will be long, if it hasn't already happened, that many people will be turned off Shop at Bid much quicker when they can now easily see the comparison between this channel and the others.