While everybody is concentrated on Google’s upcoming IPO and the general state of the search market as far as the traditional search engines are concerned, there is a whole new family of search engines out there that almost nobody pays attention to. These new search engines focus uniquely to customers and their buying habits or buying experience.

Comparison shopping search engines can be looked at as online shopping malls, except they have a very important feature that traditional “brick and mortar” don’t usually have: search functionality. This is what makes them unique.

It was only a question of time for these search properties to appear. After all, statistics today prove that people are using the Internet more and more to find what they are looking for, or to help them find a great deal on what they’ve been wanting to buy for some time.

What makes comparison shopping search engines useful is that you can compare specific products in the same category and by many purchasing factors. Price is certainly a very important one. Being able to find shopping information in one convenient location, while having access to consumer buying reviews and reports that will enable you to make a better buying decision can very appealing to a lot of people.

Today’s most popular comparison shopping search engines

So the next question that comes to mind is, which are the most popular comparison shopping search engines today, in terms of market share?  The following table was provided by Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence company.

This list was produced in October of 2003, and is still pretty much accurate today.

Website	Market Share of Visit
Yahoo Shopping	36.28%
Shopping.com	22.36%
MSN Shopping	9.46%
BizRate Shopping	8.33%
NextTag	8.18%
PriceGrabber	8.06%
MySimon	3.47%
PriceWatch	2.75%
PriceScan	0.56%
Froogle	0.55%

As you can readily see from the above chart, Yahoo Shopping is clearly the strong contender in this market, with more than a 36% market share.

Note that Google’s Froogle comparison shopping search engine was only started in December of 2002, which explains why it had less than a one percent market share when this list was produced. It is my expectation that, as time progresses, Froogle will become a significant player in this specialized market. Companies can become Froogle merchants and can freely submit a data feed of their products to Froogle.

How do comparison shopping search engines work for merchants?

So far, we’ve talked about the person that’s searching to buy a specific product, the “end user” if you will. But, if you happen to be a merchant trying to sell your products online, how do comparison shopping search engines fit in your search engine marketing campaign?

While this can vary a lot from one comparison shopping search engine to another, some allow merchants to submit some (or all) of their products for free, and then charge a transaction fee for every sale done on their engine.

Froogle is still offered as a beta release, so my feeling is that it’s still free, for now at least. How long will Google let you use Froogle for free? I don’t have the answer to that question, but if you happen to be serious about comparison shopping search engines, Froogle would seem like a logical choice.

Then, if merchants need to increase their listing positioning higher up within one or more categories, they can always purchase CPC (Cost per Click) advertising as an option.

For the past 12 months, what were the most popular types of products on most of the shopping search engines? The following list offers that information:

1. Computers
2. Digital cameras
3. DVD players
4. Video games
5. DVD movies
6. Books
7. CD’s and music
8. Apparel
9. Photography

The importance of customer testimonials

If there is one single item that can really make a big difference in getting the sale on comparison shopping search engines, it’s customer testimonials. Customer reviews and testimonials on shopping search engines can actually ‘make or break’ online merchants.

As proof to this, Fore See Results, a consumer review agency, conducted a survey and found that more than 25% of comparison shopping search engine users need to actually compare the reputation of even the biggest online stores. Because many merchants are actually resellers of big and well-known brand names, consumers and shoppers are often hesitant about dealing with a third-party source or intermediate store. The best way to answer this problem is with strong customer testimonials.

If you happen to have an excellent customer rating, or if the company that actually manufactures the products you sell online has already given you a form of endorsement in any way, make sure you link to those important facts, directly on their website. A testimonial on another, independent or third party website will always be taken more seriously than if it is on your site.

Remember that, for the most part, people that use comparison shopping search engines are pretty good consumers and are usually better informed than people that never use them. The fact that they are using them also means they are ready in their buying cycle, and will probably make their purchase decision very soon.

Conclusion

Comparison shopping search engines can mean a big difference in your search engine marketing campaigns and can significantly increase your ROI. If the products you are selling on your site have already been endorsed by the manufacturer or its national distributor, or if your website happens to offer the best buying experience, you will maximize your exposure if your products are listed on such search engines.

Comparison shopping search engines can be viewed as a complementary or auxiliary source on the Web, where buyers look for specific buying information. Most users that visit such sites already have a very good idea of what they are looking for, and the final price they will get often determines on which site they will buy their product from.

Reference:  “Search Engine Advertising” by Catherine Seda. 347 pages.
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