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

Dominik Macinger asked:




When consumers buy items off the market, your instinct will quickly tell you to compare prices. Indeed, this is part of the human nature to compare everything but this behavior serves you well when buying items on a limited budget. Conducting a detailed research of the products available to choose from is therefore an advantageous trait that anyone can have during shopping.

Even if it meant having to visit one shop after another, consumers would be willing to go through such hassle for adequate price comparison. This is believed to be the most efficient way to get a general consensus of the market price and find ones that offer highest affordability without sacrificing product quality.

But with the advent of the internet and price comparison websites, doing your research for various products you intend to buy can now be conveniently done right at the comfort of your own home. Thus, even when you still have your sleeping clothes on, you can conveniently shop for the items you want since all you need is your computer and an internet connection.

Even when it is convenient to shop from one product website to another, online comparison sites take that benefit to a new height by gathering all those information you need in one place. Hence, it saves you more time in comparing prices to get the cheapest deal since you have them all in a single website. It therefore suits modern shoppers and those who are budget-conscious to use these price comparison tools to identify where the best rates are. In addition, you no longer have to physically visit one shop to another just to survey those information to make your life that much easier.

Indeed, online shops aren’t the only ones that offer price comparison opportunities. There are shopping comparison sites that are specifically intended for this sole purpose. When you log into the site, you can access basic information about the product you want such as list of manufacturers, prices, product category, existing discounts, related products, among others. These services applies for all types of products that are available online. In some cases, these sites can even provide access to software and other tools to further enhance your ability to make efficient comparison.

If you are interested to find out how rates can vary and to gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of price comparison, it is due to the stiff level of competition between merchants and retailers. Hence, price range for certain products on the market can fluctuate from time to time. In some cases, discounts are made available due to marketing policies. And unless you research about these information, you can never unlock your ability to find cheap deals.

It is also for this same reason why several manufacturing companies resist price comparison sites since the latter points out the merits of the product and company, while at the same time raising into the buyer’s attention the shortcomings of the product. However, consumers benefit the most from these services as they can generate an honest assessment of the product to help out their buying decision.

Bill

PriceCoop asked:

Discover how to save money and make money by doing grocery price comparison shopping. A powerful grocery price comparison calculator will check your shopping list for the cost of food prices at eight stores you select. It will then compare the product prices at those store and give you a Magic List of what to buy at what stores to get the best savings. You get to tell the calculator how many stores you are willing to shop this week from the eight stores you selected. This is a very powerful tool for planning your shopping strategy and it has proven itself to save 35-50% of a shoppers monthly grocery costs.

Ray

Jacob Marshal asked:


Internet has become a popular source for shopping things online. Most of the shoppers today prefer to use the products and services offered online. One can find almost any information on any product while sitting at home. Now, buyers have more choices and sellers have more number of customers. Different shopping portals are the perfect platforms where buyers and sellers meet. All these have largely benefited the business world.

The number of internet users has increased significantly in the last five years. This growth has worked as a catalyst to the emerging business opportunities on the internet. This enormous growth of internet has contributed to the success of price compare websites. These sites offer the facility to compare the prices of different products so that customers can get the best deals. One does not need to browse different sites for this purpose. The comparison sites give this facility at a particular place on their webpage. With just a click on the “Compare” section, one can get a detailed idea about different brands which are available in the markets. These sites also provide lists of various online stores, prices, deals, schemes and other offers.

The price comparison websites constantly get updated so that viewers could find the latest news. The details of newly launched products and services are provided to the users. The customers are informed in many other ways such as sending newsletters, emails and reminders. The comparison sites are always convenient since these take lesser time to deliver the required information to the viewers. Shopping becomes much easier on these marketplaces because of the less complex procedures.

The online shopping portals have become common names in the UK households. A number of comparison sites like Yahoo, Amazon, MSN, RupizCompare, etc. provide a wide range of products under specific verticals. Apart from these established brands, many other players are coming into the markets. They offer several lucrative deals in order to attract more and more customers. Comparing prices of different products have many benefits and some of them are given below.

* Comparison shopping gives one the opportunity to compare the prices and other specifications of the products and services so that she or he can take better purchase decision.

* One can read reviews about a particular product which helps in understanding the overall features of the product.

* These sites automatically calculate the shipping cost once the zip code of a particular place is entered.

* One does not need to visit the place physically as these sites provide all the required information on the computer screen.

* With increasing uses of mobile phones, anybody can find his or her favourite products anytime and anywhere.

Online shopping encourages customers to do more and more shopping. In the festive seasons, people may end up getting huge discounts given by the online portals. These also help to avoid traffic jams and parking difficulties because anyone can place the order online and the ordered products are delivered by the concerned portals. For example, if anybody wants to purchase food items, she or he can get these by shopping online. This process does not require waiting for items to be scanned and bills to be generated. Today, one can find that a lot of entertainment features are also provided on the comparison sites. Visitors can play games, chat online, watch TV and listen to music while shopping at these places. These marketplaces also offer the facility to put all the selected products in one basket and win the free gifts and earn discounts.

The recent trend in online shopping is to bring internet users to the price comparison sites through direct advertising. Moreover, the pop-ups, banners and teasers are being used to lure the customers. These sites use a unique distribution mechanism to grow their businesses. Due to this mechanism, the leading online merchants give the links of their products everywhere on the internet. Overall, it can be said that shopping on internet brings exciting experiences to the shoppers. With new innovations taking place, such experiences are expected to become more enriching in the times to come.



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