Working on Project for School, Need Direction..

[jhern87]

Hello everyone, I'm working on a project for school and was hoping to get a little direction from someone.

Basically we were given a business idea and we need to explain why it is or isn't a good idea. The idea that I was given was an idea for a website where items are pulled from numerous online retailers for side by side comparison and shopping (Like Wal-Mart, Amazon, Ikea, random local retailers). Where I'm looking for guidance is I'm not exactly sure where to find the legalities of such a venture. Would these retailers allow another company to list their goods? (doubt it). Will I need to investigate each of them to find their policies on such situations? Also what laws prohibit it (I'm assuming some sort of property violation)?

Thanks for the help in advance, I figured this would be a good place to find some answers.

[Harold Mansfield]

Hello everyone, I'm working on a project for school and was hoping to get a little direction from someone.

Basically we were given a business idea and we need to explain why it is or isn't a good idea. The idea that I was given was an idea for a website where items are pulled from numerous online retailers for side by side comparison and shopping (Like Wal-Mart, Amazon, Ikea, random local retailers). Where I'm looking for guidance is I'm not exactly sure where to find the legalities of such a venture. Would these retailers allow another company to list their goods? (doubt it). Will I need to investigate each of them to find their policies on such situations? Also what laws prohibit it (I'm assuming some sort of property violation)?

Thanks for the help in advance, I figured this would be a good place to find some answers.
Most of those websites are affiliates. Meaning they sign up (or make side deals) to get a kick back if they make a sale. So when you're viewing a side by side comparison and you click to buy one, the site you clicked through from gets a percentage of the sale.

Knowing this should help you start to think differently how and why these sites exist. They aren't "stealing" the information, they're in on the sale.

You should be able to take it from here without going down the wrong rabbit hole.

[jhern87]

Most of those websites are affiliates. Meaning they sign up (or make side deals) to get a kick back if they make a sale. So when you're viewing a side by side comparison and you click to buy one, the site you clicked through from gets a percentage of the sale.

Knowing this should help you start to think differently how and why these sites exist. They aren't "stealing" the information, they're in on the sale.

You should be able to take it from here without going down the wrong rabbit hole.

That did help! Thank you very much for the advice, Harold.