Jasmeet Sawhney asked:




Comparison shopping or ability to compare prices was (and to a large extent continues to be) one of the greatest innovations since the advent of internet shopping. Why? Because it put shoppers in control of the single most important shopping insight – ability to find the best price. So, understandably, comparison shopping engines (CSEs) were once a rage. But, they are constantly losing their clout with advent of new technologies and pressure from players like Google and Amazon. Here are some of the factors that are taking away CSE traffic:

Search engines are investing on their own shopping platforms – Google and Bing continue to evolve their own product search platforms. In addition to standard product information, they are enriching product pages with content like product reviews, videos and related products. There is a clear conflict of interest when it comes to product related search results. And, guess who wins? It is definitely not CSEs.

Amazon marketplace – This may come in as a surprise since we are talking about comparison shopping. But, Amazon Product Ads drives more than 4% of CSE traffic and it is growing at a good pace. For most categories, traffic from Amazon is very high quality with high conversion rates.

Social Media and Mobile – All of us know how social and mobile technologies are changing our lives. They impact all aspects of digital landscape and online shopping is no different. This is just the beginning – traffic from social and mobile platforms will explode in the next 5 years.

Ability to comparison shop on online retail sites – This is slowly becoming the new hygiene factor for online retail sites. Most of the big retailers already offer this feature. But, I highly doubt that shoppers can be fooled for too long. It is not difficult to discover that almost all prices from competitor sites are either higher or within 98% of the price listed on the site offering this feature.

It is clear that comparison shopping engines are under a lot of pressure trying to keep their market share. But, there are some bright spots as well. The second generation CSEs are fairing much better and continue to grow at the expense of their older counterparts. In the next post, we’ll discuss how CSEs have evolved and what newer entrants are doing to grow their traffic.

Monica

Andrew Peterson asked:


People shop for all kinds of items. But, before the shopping, they go for a research on the particular product they want to buy. They look for the spot of the cheapest product of their choice.

In early times, we used to visit from shop to shop searching for the cheapest deal. Still we have a similar job to get the cheapest product. But, the difference is that now we don’t need to trod the path through the hassles of market. We now have online stores that can be used to do the shopping and a few of them also have the tools for the Price Comparison shopping.

Costumers keep looking for the best deal for their product. They want to get the best product at the cheapest price. This has not been very difficult after the huge scope of competition present in the market. All the retailers want to make costumers come to them for which, they offer products at rates with the least margin. Due to the advent of online shopping, consumers have got a means to shop comfortably from their cosy rooms and not face the hustle of crowded market. Payment can be done with the help of your credit card or it can also be done through the cash on delivery mode where you pay after the product is delivered at your doorsteps.

Online stores can be easily reached by the help of search engines. These stores keep everything that a costumer can come for, ranging from a small pen to cars and all. Many of these online stores also offer tools for price comparison shopping where the shopper can compare the prices of items they want to purchase. All these websites have their own unique attractive features to aid costumers make a smart buy. You can get the best shop for you through the internet and then can get the best deal doing some amount of comparison shopping through the comparison tools provided in the shopping portals.

While going for a purchase in the online shopping portals, one should first be satisfied by going through the terms and conditions provided there. Different portals have different conditions, so one must go through them such that he or she does not face any kind of problem after the purchase.

This price comparison shopping can be further done with the help of the mobile phones by sending text messages and getting reply in the form of the best deal. Such service is provided by only a few service provider, but is very useful for users’ comfort. The user can simply feed in the product and send message after which, within a few minutes he can receive the price updates.

With these facilitated features available for you in the different shopping portals, you can be able to do your job of price comparison shopping with the extreme ease and comfort.



NATHAN

Mike Simonds asked:


Gone are the days when we would be refrained ourselves in hopping from one shop to another, one vendor to another in search of better products, better bargains. And now look at us, we have transformed us into tech-savvy shoppers to wind up entire searching, product studies and swiping our cards – from the comfort of home using vast resources available at the Internet. Shopping from Internet equals to luxe of greater options, odds of finding better quality and quantity of products, wider availability of varieties and brands in order to be able to tally price rates in relation to quality and content of products. Online shopping has reduced the strain on our feet, exhaustive and energy consuming activities in our quest of always something better – with faster access to relevant and huge pool of information. While the primitive phase of online shopping involved toggling as many as possible web pages, current phase of online shopping implies referring just one site – any good price comparison shopping site.

With passing eras, advent of advancements has made online information within closer proximity to us, being more organised and in more compact form. One of the instances of how internet based information has been more compressed and compact and compatible to our requisition is price comparison shopping sites. Such websites are intended to facilitate internet shoppers to discover the most appropriate products after conducting detailed market research. Such price comparison platforms provide enormous opportunities to get pros and cons on every type of products or services including of different packages and price variation.

So, should you buy jewellery to cutleries, appliances to equipments, apparel or apartments, gadgets to groceries, instruments to insurance products – whatsoever be your requirement, meet those in galore. Moreover, such price comparison shopping portals provide unbiased reports, market reviews and recommendation and also give impartial judgment on which products are worth investments and which are not.

Unlike own website of any company, these portals do not adopt aggressive sales pitches, rather espouse neutral and recommendation based information along with special software and online tools to help customers perform small calculations, price estimations etc. Thus, price comparison sites render better opportunities to find products with accurate precision and just drop in at online shopping cart to get the product delivered at your doorstep.



FREDRICK

Jacob Marshal asked:


Shopping is no longer as before! With the advent of online shopping the whole concept of shopping has become more exciting and time saving than before. There was a time we would visit as many places for purchasing a thing within our budget. No doubt even in those days we would go for comparison shopping or price comparison to find a product of our desire in the best bargain.

Today things have drastically changed. Internet has brought the world much closer. Within seconds we can find our favourite products, check prices, various types of discount deals and even buy them sitting at the comfort of the drawing room. All the more you need not squander here and there for price comparison, as a lot many comparison shopping sites provide price comparison services, price listings, product reviews and lot other information that we ought to know before purchasing any item.

The recent trend of price comparison has almost taken aback the online market. Perhaps it is the most convenient method with the help of which anyone to find the best deal amongst sumptuous offers in the market. Now everything is in a single platform. In sites catering to comparison shopping, consumers are exposed to a huge collection of products from where they can pick the best package in accordance to his needs and monetary standings.

To ease shopping, these price comparison portals have quite diplomatically enlisted best offers in a single platform along with genuine reviews and other interactive options like online chatting with customers and help from executive for better guidance. Above all in online comparison sites it is easier to compare products of different manufacturers, deals of various providers and also have a virtual tour to the products on sale.

So sitting at home you can enquire about products and make the best purchase. If you have a closer look you would find that the Web site is flooded with price comparison portals, so sometimes it becomes difficult to trust any particular site. That is why before deciding consumers should consult as many sites as possible. Above all a careful observation and analysis is required for finding out the best deal. The better part of it is that unlike earlier times, price comparison can now be done with much less effort—sitting at home.



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Henry Kruz asked:


It is a natural tendency of people to compare similar things and then buy that particular thing in a competitive price. However, comparing each and every item by physically going to the shops is not an easy affair. Today, with the advent of online shopping, speciality comparison shopping sites are gaining wide popularity as consumer’s method of choice, where people can not only compare the prices and products, but also get an opportunity to choose the best deal and buy them at an affordable price.

Comparison shopping is not only beneficial for the consumers, but it also has a lot to do as a sales enhancement method for the merchants. Since these online comparison shopping sites highlight products from various manufacturers and vendors it helps consumers to compare products more easily. Further, the articles, reviews and contents on different products enable consumers to come in to a conclusion about a particular product.

So if you are a merchant, a comparison shopping site can add more value to your product as it offers a platform for product analysis and an easy means to reach the customers. Also, because the comparison shopping portals are third party marketplaces people tend to trust it more considering it to be unbiased.

Another advantage is that a merchant can also keep his products up to date, because the product listings in comparison shopping sites are collected from data feeds which contain standardized information in specific format and are submitted through FTP. These comparison shopping sites usually collect data directly from the merchants. They additionally offer options for retailers to supply their own product lists which are further compared with the prices of original database. Thus by doing so it gives the consumers ample opportunities to find the best product in an affordable price, which in turn enhances the sale of a particular merchant.

Comparison shopping is thus one of the best methods a merchant could employ to reach its customers directly. Moreover these comparison shopping marketplaces enable different merchants to prove themselves in a competitive platform and increase their popularity.



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