Jellyfish Swims Into View: New Shopping Vertical Has Radical Ad Model
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Written By Reprise Media | June 27, 2006 | Share This
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In nature, it’s wise to stay far away from jellyfish at any cost. ‘Net users, however, might want to check out the online version, a new comparison shopping engine that offers its advertisers a unique way to place higher in search results, and shoppers a way to get cash back on purchases.
Rather than more familiar CPC systems, Jellyfish ranks merchants according to VPA, or “value-per-action,” according to ClickZ. Basically, the lower the merchant is willing to go on the final price for any particular item, the higher it ranks in the results. If a user clicks through to the seller’s site and buys the product, Jellyfish earns a commission - at least half of which it gives back to the consumer, in the form of a check or PayPal payment.
It kind of sounds…well, we’re not going to say “fishy.” More like “convoluted.” But Jellyfish thinks that its cash-back system will have customers coming back, because VPA is a “more equitable model.” The way they put it, “The same kind of advertising auction for your attention happens every day at Google, Yahoo, and other search engines, but they keep all the money for themselves.”
Jellyfish also seems to be building a community, in a roundabout way. Users must sign in to receive cash back on purchases, but being signed in confers more benefits, like being able to leave merchant feedback and review products (and only those who’ve purchased a product are permitted to review it by Jellyfish). Users can even earn additional dollars by referring shoppers that end up buying from Jellyfish sellers.
We’ll see if Jellyfish can sustain itself on cash-back promises, but already they “have a handful of stores in our engine that won’t allow us to share, so when you buy from them we can’t give cash back.” Hopefully they can keep that number under a handful, or consumers might start asking what the point is.
Topics: Search: Vertical |