Canada’s First Local Shopping Site

Here’s an interesting and much-needed proposition: a start-up that wants to help consumers browse, compare buy products from Canadian retailers. Given the Canadian e-commerce market continues to lag behind the U.S. for a variety of reasons (lack of selection, a dearth of retail choices), Vancouver-based esyshopping.com is definitely focused on a fertile market. The three-person, self-funded start-up expects to launch next month (you can sign up now). Theo Tonca, esyshopping’s c-founder and COO, said the business model is based on placing “highly targeted local advertising on the Web site, and by offering retailers cost-per-click and cost-per-action advertising”. In terms of competition, The 19-year-old Tonca said there is none in Canada yet, which I find difficult to believe.

By the way, the company’s privacy policy is, well, unique:

Note: esy inc. guarantee’s to never, eeevvveeerrr sell or rent any of your personal information to spammers or other companies alike. Furthermore, we vow to protect the personal information that you provide to us like our life depended on it (because it really does)

For more, check out Startup North.