5 ms·
Ask HN: What would you as a user prefer?
What would you prefer to have in a local product search results?
a)Search results coming from 5% of total local retailers (9 out of 10 of them big box retail shops) with non-guaranteed in-stock info
OR
b)Search results coming from 30 times larger total amount of local retailers (including majority of small shops, mom-n-pops, all big box, malls, small outlets) with "almost" accurate in-stock info coming from big boys and no or little in-stock info from small shops (but you can call and check)
- thewordpainter 16y agodepends on whether i'm looking for generic goods or hard-to-find items. also, is price a primary concern? typically, i think the 5% should cover the necessary items...but are you going after a specific niche market?
- korrozia 16y agoNo, all categories of products (except cars maybe :) )
- korrozia 16y agoAnd yes, price and distance are important of course.
- thewordpainter 16y agoit really depends on your niche. are you trying to be the aggregator of the best deals in town? you'd probably want to be as comprehensive as possible in that case! for example, if you're trying to satisfy a number of different markets, i'd say the top 5% would probably suffice. good luck!
- korrozia 16y agoNo this is not only best deals in town. Thats ALL products in majority (say 60%) of local retailers
- korrozia 16y agoNo this is not only best deals in town. Thats ALL products in majority (say 60%) of local retailers
- moconnor 16y agoIn any case I'm only going to look at the top 5 or so results returned, so the method used for ranking the results is much more important. Do (b) and show me the closest two matches to my current or given location and the closest two with in-stock info along with local travel times and opening hours for each. It'd be nice if closest was in travel time, be that by car or public transport, too.
- korrozia 16y agoTo be able to show closest and cheapest the service will need to include more stores obviously, correct? Cause if you use (a) then the potentially you're missing vast majority of stores closest to you
- meatsock 16y agob) why on earth would i want to avoid a chance to spend my money on a local mom n pop instead of sending my money directly out-of-town to some conglomerate?