Justify the statement, "Shopping bots have made the purchase decisions of consumers more efficient."

What will be an ideal response?

ANSWER: The Internet and extranets are linking people, machines, and companies around the globeâ€"and connecting sellers and buyers as never before. These links are enabling buyers to compare products and prices, putting them in a better bargaining position. A shopping bot is a program that searches the Web for the best price for a particular item that one wishes to purchase. Shopping bots theoretically give pricing power to the consumer. The more information that the shopper has, the more efficient his or her purchase decision will be. Shopping bots have been around for quite some time, and security protocols have been developed by some Internet retailers to limit bot trawls. Still, shopping bots remain a powerful and impactful marketing tool to this day.