It is simply impossible to avoid. Buyers remorse seems to be ever more cruel when it comes to technology.
Picture this. You have made up your mind that it is finally time to buy a new camera/phone/laptop.
You are done photographing your listings with your 5 megapixel point and shoot. Fed up with taking the battery out of your Blackberry four times a day? Once and for all you are going to get rid of that spam and virus filled PC you have been chugging along with for many too many months.
Often when we buy new hardware it is an emotional and rash decision. It shouldn’t be. Yes, you may be ready for that new tool for your business, but what if the newest, hottest, shiniest model is coming out in two weeks? A model that will surely be smaller and faster and maybe even worst of all cheaper?
Enter Decide.com.
Decide.com has created an algorithm based on 1’000’s of data points to make sure that you not so much buy the right device, but more so that you buy it at the right time!
As someone who has purchased far too many Apple products in the last 3 years I can tell you that having a service and information like this can literally be priceless.
Upgrades are happening so quickly with hardware as are price reductions on older models. Normally you would never see in a Best Buy ad “Great model, but you should wait four weeks until we mark it down or for the new one to come out”.
Decide.com even has a great mobile site so that you can access suggestions like “wait for new model” or “wait for price to drop” while at the store. Talk about transparency and giving the sales guy a truly difficult objection to overcome.
From what I can tell Decide is currently focused on cameras and laptops, both of which many real estate agents are either in the market for or will be soon. If you decide, pun intended, to browse around Decide.com and happen to find an item that should not be purchased due to the data they have complied you can set alerts as to be notified when the time is right.
My first reaction? Super cool site worth spending a few minutes on and remembering for your next purchase.
My second is that what if a site like Trulia or Zillow decided to add a similar algorithm to homes consumers were browsing on the web? Can you picture a buyer standing in front of a home with their phone out getting a “Wait 3 months to buy” recommendation? I can…
Written by: Chris Smith, Chief Evangelist, Inman News,@chris_smth
