BizRate

Originating as a graduate school project in 1996, Bizrate was founded by Farhad Mohit and Henri Asseily, who were classmates at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. The initial concept, born from Mohit's business plan thesis with technological development by Asseily, was to create a reliable online rating service for e-commerce merchants. The founders launched the company, initially named Binary Compass Enterprises, from a spare room in Mohit's parents' home, securing initial funding primarily from Asseily's family. The company collected its first retailer reviews in 1997 after rebranding to Bizrate.com.

The firm's history includes several transformations and acquisitions. In 2004, Bizrate rebranded to Shopzilla, which was then acquired by The E. W. Scripps Company in 2005 for approximately $525 million. Throughout these changes, the consumer insights division continued to operate, eventually becoming known as Bizrate Insights. Subsequent ownership changes included an acquisition by Symphony Technology Group in 2011, a rebranding of the parent company to Connexity, Inc. in 2014, and the sale of the Bizrate Insights division to Time Inc.'s Synapse Group in 2016. Most recently, Bizrate Insights became part of Dotdash Meredith after Meredith Corporation, which had acquired Time Inc., was merged with Dotdash.

Bizrate's business operates on two main fronts: a comparison shopping website for consumers and a market research division, Bizrate Insights, for businesses. For consumers, Bizrate.com is a shopping portal offering price comparisons, product reviews, merchant ratings, and deal alerts across a wide array of categories. For its business clients, Bizrate Insights provides voice-of-customer (VoC) feedback solutions. The company serves online and omnichannel retailers by collecting and analyzing consumer feedback at various stages of the customer journey, from site abandonment to post-purchase fulfillment. Revenue is generated from commissions on sales originating from its shopping portal and through fees for its market research services, where retailers can purchase detailed data reports. The service helps retailers understand customer satisfaction, benchmark performance against competitors, and identify areas for improvement. A key feature is the syndication of verified ratings and reviews to major search engines like Google and Bing, enhancing clients' online visibility.

Keywords: customer feedback, comparison shopping, voice of customer, retailer ratings, market research, e-commerce analytics, consumer insights, online reviews, price comparison, customer experience, data analytics, seller ratings, online retail, shopper behavior, customer satisfaction, product reviews, Net Promoter Score, site abandonment survey, competitive benchmarking, post-purchase survey