PriceMinister
PriceMinister was the first website to bring together individuals and professionals who sell and buy new, used or collectable products at fixed prices. There are about 23 million visits to the PriceMinister sites each month, 127 million products are for sale, and PriceMinister now has 10 million members.
This online buying and selling site ranks 2nd only to eBay amongst French e-shopping sites and was founded by Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, Pierre Krings, Justin Ziegler, Olivier Mathiot and Nathalie Gaveau in August 2000.
In 2009, PriceMinister launched its UK site, PriceMinister.co.uk, so now there’s no need to go to Yahoo’s babel fish for a translation from French to English if you want to buy or sell on the PriceMinister site!
With the declared aim of joining eBay, Amazon, Tesco and play.com in the top 5 online shopping sites in the UK, PriceMinister is offering free listings, discount vouchers, recruitment bonuses and other promotions to encourage new online buyers and sellers to sign up. Whilst it may be bad news for customers of online store CDiscount.co.uk which went into administration in November, it’s good news for PriceMinister, which focuses on the same electronics, clothes, CDs and DVDs online selling and buying marketplace and is well placed to move into the vacant slot left by CDiscount.
Unlike eBay, PriceMinister stands as a third party guarantor, assuring the safety of the transaction for sellers and buyers alike. PriceMinister guarantees a total refund to the buyer if the product is not delivered, or is found to be damaged on delivery; as well as ensuring payment to the seller. This approach of providing a safe trading environment is attracting increasing numbers of disenchanted eBay users.
PriceMinister focuses on providing a safe online shopping venue to buy cheap new items as well as to purchase used clothes, books, DVDs, CDs and a wide range of consumer electronics, making PriceMinister the ideal place to get a great bargain, but at the same time avoiding the risk of being scammed, which is so prevalent in some online auction sites.
For sellers, PriceMinister provides a rapidly growing internet shopping user base as well as the security of knowing that PriceMinister guarantees payment will be made even if the purchaser defaults – a valuable proposition when other venues attract so many questionable buyers.
One of the other key things that makes PriceMinister different to eBay is that there are no auctions. Sellers list their items at a fixed price, typically 50% to 90% below the retail price of the product. But buyers can make an offer to purchase at a price lower than the seller has set. It’s then up to the seller to decide if they wish to accept, which makes PriceMinister a trading forum that allows buyers and sellers to negotiate directly, rather than an eBay-style “blind auction”.
PriceMinister Traffic – Where Does it Come From?
PriceMinister is still very new to the UK, so how are people finding their way to the site? The table below shows some examples of the keywords that Google associates with the PriceMinister UK website and the average monthly volume of searches for various names, keywords and phrases. Keeping an eye on what people are searching for can help anyone interested in selling on PriceMinister to check whether the items they want to sell are likely to be “hot”, but you should also do your own keyword research on the PriceMinister site and Google.
For buyers, it’s interesting to note that the phrases which Google associates with PriceMinister UK include “best price”, “buy cheap” “buy secondhand”, “CDs”, books”, “DVDs” etc. So it seems like PriceMinister is very much focused on these areas. But that’s not all PriceMinister has to offer, there are millions of both new and second hand products for sale ranging from consumer electronics to designer fashion and video games to comics.
| Name | UK Average Monthly Search Volume | Search Trend |
|---|---|---|
| used records | 1,600 |  |
| buy cd's | 1,600 |  |
| vinyl selling | 1,600 |  |
| cd selling | 1,600 |  |
| sell comics | 1,600 |  |
| sell on the internet | 1,600 |  |
| microsoft outlook 2000 | 1,900 |  |
| web design for dummies | 1,900 |  |
| sell books online | 1,900 |  |
| sites discount | 1,900 |  |
| print master | 1,900 |  |
| ms project 2003 | 2,400 |  |
| red baby dress | 2,900 |  |
| purchasing online | 2,400 |  |
| excel vba for dummies | 2,900 |  |
| cheap games uk | 2,900 |  |
| second hand bookshop | 2,900 |  |
| selling dvds | 2,900 |  |
| selling cds | 2,900 |  |
| console prices | 3,600 |  |
| used video games | 3,600 |  |
| used dvds | 3,600 |  |
| sell vinyl | 3,600 |  |
| buy secondhand | 3,600 |  |
| sell cd | 3,600 |  |
| website selling | 3,600 |  |
| buy cheap games | 4,400 |  |
| sell dvd | 4,400 |  |
| e pay | 4,400 |  |
| sell book | 4,400 |  |
| discount cd | 5,400 |  |
| excel vba programming | 6,600 |  |
| cds online | 6,600 |  |
| shopping website | 6,600 |  |
| primeminister | 6,600 |  |
| shopping web | 6,600 |  |
| sell cds | 6,600 |  |
| sell dvds | 6,600 |  |
| used consoles | 8,100 |  |
| moulin rouge clothes | 9,900 |  |
| microsoft project 2003 | 9,900 |  |
| book second hand | 9,900 |  |
| priminister | 9,900 |  |
| buy discount | 9,900 |  |
| cd online | 12,100 |  |
| shop website | 12,100 |  |
| cheap fashion | 14,800 |  |
| internet shopping | 14,800 |  |
| online prices | 18,100 |  |
| low prices | 18,100 |  |
| buy web | 18,100 |  |
| reductions | 18,100 |  |
| books selling | 22,200 |  |
| price mini | 22,200 |  |
| online selling | 22,200 |  |
| purchase online | 27,100 |  |
| used games | 33,100 |  |
| buy second hand | 33,100 |  |
| books second hand | 40,500 |  |
| sales online | 40,500 |  |
| buy cd | 49,500 |  |
| buy cds | 49,500 |  |
| sell books | 49,500 |  |
| buy books | 60,500 |  |
| low price | 60,500 |  |
| best prices | 110,000 |  |
| reduced | 135,000 |  |
| dvds games | 165,000 |  |
| jetix | 165,000 |  |
| prime minister | 201,000 |  |
| cheaper | 201,000 |  |
| purchasing | 246,000 |  |
| buy cheap | 301,000 |  |
| reduction | 301,000 |  |
| online shopping | 368,000 |  |
| shop online | 368,000 |  |
| best price | 673,000 |  |
| purchase | 673,000 |  |
| buy online | 673,000 |  |
| marketplace | 1,220,000 |  |
| toys r | 1,220,000 |  |
| discount | 4,090,000 |  |
| shopping | 4,090,000 |  |
| prices | 5,000,000 |  |
| buy used | 7,480,000 |  |
| Price | 11,100,000 |  |
| sales | 20,400,000 |  |
| cheap | 30,400,000 |  |