December 4, 1998

What the Internet really needs this shopping season is a Web equivalent to Washington Consumer Checkbook http://www.checkbook.org, the nonprofit-run magazine that has rated stores in the D.C. area for years. BizRate http://www.bizrate.com shows how that could be done. The ad-free site, run as a loss leader by Los Angeles-based e-commerce market researchers Binary Compass Enterprises, lists basic data on online merchants – for instance, credit cards accepted, return policies, shipping methods and order tracking availability. In many cases, BizRate also conducts its own "secret shopping" to assess merchants and surveys retailers' customers to measure their satisfaction. But the generous, helpful details on listed merchants are offset by still-sketchy coverage.
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Rob Pegoraro rob@twp.com