A new website with a new buzzword - "engagement commerce" - launched on Tuesday. Fididel says it moves the online buying experience from an "auction" or "fixed price" transaction to real-time negotiation. But rather than straight automation, the site also uses real people to negotiate on behalf of its sellers. The launch of Fididel follows closely on the heels of the introduction of another "haggle" ecommerce site, Wigix.com, a week ago (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m04/i30/s04).

Fididel shoppers can search the site for products they're interested in and immediately begin negotiating on price. Buyers can engage the seller or a "Fidideler" on any product. Fididelers are trained to negotiate on behalf of sellers and receive a commission based on final selling price.

Fididel is in beta testing and has not published selling fees to its site. Rather, sellers must submit their email address and a description of products they want to sell, and Fididel will contact them (https://www.fididel.com/sell.php).

A company spokesperson said on Tuesday there are no listing fees for sellers. "We have a success fee that is a sliding scale so the transaction fee (or commission) percentage goes down as the price of the product goes up. So compared to a $50 product, the transaction fee on a $1,000 product will be much lower."

He said sellers set the commission amount (transaction fee). "So the seller will likely want to offer more commission as an incentive to the Fidideler to drive the product price as high as possible."

The company is funded by Quest Venture Partners LLC and, according to VentureBeat, has raised $1 million (http://venturebeat.com/2008/05/05/fididel-launches-live-negotiation-auction-business).

http://www.fididel.com