Middleman to keep businesses anonymous- problem that I need help with.

Hunter21

Need help with a business idea, bear with me here.

I have an internet sales site in development where I will advertise (For a fee or commission based) products for shops as so they will stay anonymous as lots of shops won't go online as they have a fear that others will compare prices, so staying anonymous all their stock will be online and the exspense of starting a website will be off their shoulders.

The issue is buyers i.e some of the public will want to see these products in person but how will I make sure its only genuine people get the full details of where the item is?

Say;
shop (A) has the item up for sale at 20euro
shop (B) has the item up for sale at 15euro

I don't want folks knowing the identity of shop A as I want the shops to remain totally anonymous until the buyer is definite he/she wants to genuinely look and then after the viewing buy the item.
Also I don't want other sellers testing the water and seeing what other retailers are selling an item at, as if the others are charging more they might be inclined to up their price(s) too. I want to make competition to bring prices down not make them rise.

jimmycrackcorm

I think your idea, is to say the least, flawed. Why do you think people will go to your site to buy these products? Don't you think any normal person will actually compare prices regardless - unless they are getting a bargain in which case there is no need to be anonymous.

If you want committed buyers then allow them to pay a deposit or pay for the item outright and then when they go to the shop then they can have the opportunity to cancel the sale.

dahamsta

In a nutshell, you can't.

Even if you ask people to identify themselves, which they won't, you have no way of knowing who they're working for. Even if you could find /that/ out, they could be doing a nixer for the competition. The only way around it is to keep a warehouse yourself with all of the products, or send potentials to a random store, both of which are impractical.

The only real solution is to tell users they can't view the products. If there are videos or reviews on the internets, link them from the product pages.

EDIT: I agree with the above btw. Your idea has a certain logic to it, but unless you're going to build (brand new) parallel brands for each vendor - at which point it becomes impractical for both of you - it just won't go anywhere.

Hunter21

I see where your coming from jimmycrackcorm but for example put it this way.

This is just an example, it's not the business I am looking at though.

Say every town has a small car garage that sells a few cars in their courtyard. These garages sometimes are not aware of the power the internet has to help them sell their stock.
If they did advertise they might only advertise their high end products or diesel cars but forget that there are also people out there looking for older model cars, a car of certain colour, spec etc.

I want to advertise as a middleman for these garages, advertise their stock and more importantly their rare stock.

Want the sellers to remain anonymous to cut down on tyre kickers and window shoppers, separate the genuine buyer from the time waster.
Impossible I know, but there must be a way to cut it down.

But mainly some businesses don't advertise their names online as people will know that they "overcharge" for items.
Impossible I know, but there must be a way to cut it down.

It would be a price comparison site where the sellers are anonymous