The true test for a revamped GROCERYchoice website will ultimately be whether consumers use it, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says.
Choice promises to introduce more services on the site, including allowing products to be listed, while consumers will be able to leave feedback about rip offs and specials.
Price surveys will also be updated on a weekly rather than monthly basis, when the website is relaunched in July 2009.
More than 4,000 supermarkets are likely to be included in the survey, while between 2,000-4,000 individual products will listed on the website.
The federal government will continue to fund the site at $4 million a year for the next two years.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon said the number of hits had dropped from three million a month to just over 100,000 hits in three months - a drop of 97 per cent.
"I hope that if information is more relevant, if it's timely, then consumers will use it," he told ABC radio.
There were dangers that Choice's reputation as an independent voice for consumers would be damaged given its virtual iconic status in Australia, Senator Xenophon said.
"If it loses its independence because of this, that could be a fatal blow for its credibility, but I'm hoping that's not the case."
The website will help grocery prices at the margins, but ultimately the government needed to do something about the "enormous" 80 per cent share Coles and Woolworths have in Australia, he said.
"It's unprecedented anywhere else in the world, that two companies control so much of the grocery market."
AAP
