A Beginner's Guide to Comparison Shopping

Posted by on May 3, 2010 in Uncategorized

Experts in Comparison Shopping often seem to use a language of their own. The purpose of this blog is to translate the basics of Comparison Shopping into readable, understandable English for consumers and merchants.

Part 1: Comparison Shopping Basics

Comparison Shopping Engines (CSE’s) allow consumers to compare prices on thousands of products from a variety of retailers with a single search. Retailers, known online as eCommerce merchants, register individual accounts on CSE’s such as PriceGrabber, ShopZilla, NexTag, and Shopping.com to market their products.

Merchants send each CSE a spreadsheet or xml file called a data feed to display their products. This file includes data like:

  • Product title
  • Product description
  • Product category (such as clothing, food, appliances)
  • Product part number (if available)
  • Number of products (inventory)
  • Product weight
  • Product URL (links the product on the CSE to the merchant’s web site)

For more information on data feeds click here.

Data feeds are regularly updated and kept accurate by the merchant or by third party data management specialists. This is to ensure that the merchant’s products are displayed correctly on each CSE.

CSE Business Structure:

Most CSE’s generate money through a Cost Per Click (CPC) system. If a consumer clicks on an item that a merchant lists on that comparison shopping site, the merchant will be charged a set fee, depending on the relative price of items in a certain category.

For example, say you’re a merchant who sells furniture. Items like furniture usually have a base CPC of around 35 cents per click. 100 consumer clicks @ 35 cents per click = $35.00. If you’re a merchant that sells items that are relatively cheaper, like clothing, you will have a lower base CPC of around 20 cents per click. 100 consumer clicks @ 20 cents per click = $20.00.

The key for merchants in Comparison Shopping is to convert a large number of these clicks into sales.

This blog post is part of a series I’m writing on the basics of Comparison Shopping.

Part 2:  Comparison Shopping Examples

Part 3: Tips to Improve Merchant Product Listings

About the Author+Andrew Davis is CPC Strategy's Director of Marketing, an expert in ecommerce marketing strategy, product marketing and all things comparison shopping related. In September 2010, Andrew finished writing the first-ever Merchant Comparison Shopping Handbook which teaches online retailers the most effective way to start and manage their comparison shopping campaigns. Today Andrew spends most of his time consulting medium and large online retailers and online marketing agencies. You can contact Andrew directly at andrew@cpcstrategy.com or via phone at 619-297-3798. See all posts by this author here.

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