Comp@re is a service provided to all Australians to enable them to take advantage of the buying opportunities the Internet offers and to help them make the best choice when deciding which merchant to use.

We feel that Comp@re is a unique Internet service both within Australia and the world. Firstly we provide a price comparison. While many other US based sites do this, they generally do not factor in differing postage costs nor exchange rates to Australia, and they only review US based merchants. Secondly we provide a merchant scorecard, which ranks merchants in various areas based not only on their price, but also on other features such as site design and navigation, information and user friendly features.

Comp@re does not, and indeed won't even attempt to, survey all web sites in each category. Rather we comp@re the big names. There are a number of reasons for this. Australia is a long way from the United States and as a result you need to deal with a trusty merchant, one that guarantees delivery, has a returns policy, has secure servers for your credit card details and won't go bust. The US firms surveyed on the Comp@re site have huge resources and capitalisation behind them, and you are dealing with a Real McKoy. Similarily with the Australian sites, we attempt to choose the larger, more reputable merchants.

Comp@re does draw elements from a number of sites worldwide. Among these is Gomez which invented the scorecard concept for US Banks and Online Brokers and is beginning to extend it. Additionally Compare.net and ComparisonShopping.net provided impetus for some of the pricing information. On the local front sites including BankSmart and PhoneChoice provide good product specific resources.

Unlike a number of the above sites Comp@re is totally independent and is not associated with any ISP or merchant. While we will consider co-branding as an option in the future, we will certainlly not enter into any exclusive deal.

Where available Comp@re becomes a member of public Merchant Affiliate schemes. This means that Comp@re is able to be kept informed of what each merchant is doing and often offer Special Offers. On the otherhand Comp@re will not enter into any special arrangements with Merchants. Comp@re is also a member of an outsourced banner advertising program and has no choice over the individual merchants that appear on each page.