Pikaba News, Stories and Articles

Shopping for products and services made easier on Pikaba.com, where custom price quotes and group buying combine with the power of social networking.

All you have to do is ask! Just say what you’re looking for and merchants will compete for your business on Pikaba.com until you get exactly what you want.

June 9, 2008, Bellevue, Wash.—Wouldn’t it be great to spend more time with your friends and family instead of going through countless searches for deals and coupons? If someone would take that role and become your “shopping assistant”—wouldn’t it be a fantastic alternative? If you think it would, then Pikaba.com is the right site for you.

Merchants compete for your business
Empowering buyers is the guiding principle of Pikaba.com. Here’s how it works:
•    Consumers post their requests for products or services (“I want to buy…” or “I need a service…”).
•    Merchants and vendors provide custom price quotes for these requests.
•    Other users (friends, family, co-workers, product experts) recommend where to buy or which model to choose.

It’s like a reverse auction where merchants compete for your business. The result: you save time and get deals that would be impossible to find anywhere else.

A free service for consumers
This shopping service is free for consumers. By posting requests and letting others know what you’re looking for, the chances of finding the right product or service increase substantially. Requests can be made in a “friends only” mode, so that only your trusted circle can see and comment on them.

Merchants can now know what customers want
If you’re a merchant, you are always looking for new customers. Here is your chance to know exactly what people want to buy. You can create “filters” with keywords, categories and location options, then you can monitor the incoming requests. Once you locate requests that fit your criteria, you can provide a price quote for each or multiple requests. You also give a price to a group of consumers looking to buy the same product. That creates opportunities for a faster inventor turnover by selling in bulk.

“The power to negotiate directly with merchants”
Since launching a few months ago Pikaba.com has attracted thousands of consumers and hundreds of merchants. “People always try to find a good deal, whether it’s a travel package to Hawaii or finding a reliable and trustworthy mechanic to fix your car,” says company co-founder and CEO Dmitry Balin. “There are many places to find products, but Pikaba.com actually gives consumers the power to negotiate directly with merchants,” he says. “It also helps to identify hard-to-find products. Once your social network knows what you’re looking for, they’ll be willing to step up and find it for you!”

Pikaba.com is presenting its new social shopping service at Internet Retailer 2008 conference in Chicago on June 9-12, 2008 at the Booth #609. Please visit http://www.Pikaba.com for more information, or contact us at info@pikaba.com or by phone 1 408 202 4567.

Groups are discussion areas that allow members to share requests, ideas, recommendations and information in one place. On Pikaba we’ve taken this even a step further. The Groups functionality is now a powerful element in your social shopping that you can leverage for many purposes. For instance, members can join or create a group for group buying and request wholesale prices from sellers. And sellers can build a group to sell in bulk and make a special group offer. So bring together friends, family, or colleagues and start a group.

Pikaba Calendar enables you to add important events to a specific date or range of dates, like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and then create requests based on your criteria.

Pikaba released a new feature called Dashboard which allows members to monitor their account statistics and track important activities on Pikaba at a glance. The Dashboard allows quick access to latest news, updates on friends, messages, ratings and subscription information. Check it out at http://www.pikaba.com/a/Dashboard.aspx.

From now on you can use Pikaba inside your Facebook profile. It gives you the option to share your requests with your friends on Facebook, get recommendations and review offers from other members and merchants bidding for your business.

Key new features:

• State of the art Web 2.0 user interface and design;
• Streamlined sign-up process with the differentiation on users and merchants;
• The dashboard functionality with extensive reporting capabilities;
• Effortless process of adding request, comments, offers;
• Integration with social networks;
• Improved request search;
• The capability to subscribe to categories and receive alerts;
• Added new categories and sub-categories;
• Product Manager to control your products and services;
• Merchants’ Listing.