eCommerce Store Owners: Idea to Get More Customers by Partnering with Other Merchants

Hi IH!

I run a project at shopboreal.com which is a search engine to find products from hundreds of thousands of independent merchants. My goal is to help merchants get found.

I've been prototyping with a new product I'd like to get people's feedback on. It's called Boreal Community (shopboreal.com/community). Bounce rates on stores tend to be quite high, often because visitors don't find what they're looking for (e.g. they search a product and the store doesn't sell it). Instead of having them go back to Google and keep searching, why not partner up with other merchants to direct the visitor to a partner store who does sell the item and in the process make a commission. The landing page has more info and a wireframe of the designs. shopboreal.com/community

If you're a store owner could you see yourself using this? Any concerns you may have?

If you're not a store owner, how would you feel about visiting a store and being directed to another that'd have the product you're looking for?