Dealaggregation

Dealaggregation refers to the process of sourcing, consolidating, and presenting promotional offers from multiple retailers and platforms into a single interface. The goal is to help users compare prices, find discounts, and track changes across products and categories.

In practice, dealaggregation is implemented by dedicated aggregators that collect data via web crawlers, APIs, or RSS feeds, and by coupon networks that exchange promotions with merchants. Listings are typically normalized to common product categories and currencies.

Key features include price tracking and history, real-time or periodic updates, filtering by category, brand, price, and savings, and alert systems that notify users of new deals or drops.

Applications include consumer-facing deal sites and apps, internal pricing engines for retailers, and affiliate marketing platforms that monetize clicks through referral links.

Challenges include data quality and freshness, handling duplicates, legal and licensing constraints, price volatility, regional availability, and anti-scraping measures by merchants.

The practice emphasizes transparency, with disclosures about pricing sources and affiliate relationships. As e-commerce grows, dealaggregation tools increasingly leverage machine learning to improve matching and detection of counterfeit or misleading offers.