By on January 11, 2007

Offertrax Allows Online Merchants to Use RSS to Connect With Customers

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According to Springwise, a new company called Offertrax is launching a service that will help online merchants implement RSS feeds in an attempt to better connect with customers.

By letting merchants use RSS to distribute updates on products, Offertrax aims to bring visitors back for future conversions. How it works? The web-based application creates RSS feeds for entire online catalogues. Retailers just add a ‘track this’ button to each product page….Consumers can then subscribe to a product’s feed. As soon as a product’s price changes or a retailer announces a special offer, trackers are notified. Merchants can also send notes and deal alerts directly to trackers.

I am so excited to see this type of service launch. I’ve been frustrated that merchants haven’t realized the full potential of RSS – outside of just delivering news content. Companies like TigerDirect and REI already use RSS for product notifications and specials and, as more and more consumers start using feed readers, they’ll enjoy the benefits from tracking their favorite online merchant’s product activity.


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4 comments on “Offertrax Allows Online Merchants to Use RSS to Connect With Customers”

  1. Andy Beard Says:

    January 11th, 2007 at 12:13 pm

    It has potential, but then again many feed readers allow you to share your RSS feeds far too easily.
    I can’t think of a way of exploiting it off-hand, but people would find a way.

    For this type of notification, email is so much better.

  2. ron pruett/offertrax Says:

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:16 pm

    Andy, good point but this is not the case with Offertrax. We have a “private” option should you wish to keep your feeds to yourself. More to come. We had to close our recent beta to newcomers but hope you’l check it out soon.
    Ron

  3. ron pruett/offertrax Says:

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:16 pm

    Andy, good point but this is not the case with Offertrax. We have a “private” option should you wish to keep your feeds to yourself. More to come. We had to close our recent beta to newcomers but hope you’ll check it out soon.
    Ron

  4. Jeremy Luebke Says:

    January 12th, 2007 at 2:49 pm

    Yea, I am a heave RSS reader but there are a few things I will never use RSS for and don’t think it should be.

    The first one is comments or subscribing to a blog post of forum thread.

    And I will never use RSS to track special offers.

    Both of those are more suited to email.