Paul S Harris asked:




If there is one industry that has had more articles written about it on forums and discussion boards and does not require another word said about it, it is the Price Comparison Shopping industry. Millions of words have been spent analysing, dissecting and often desecrating all of the major players in the field and, boy, are there plenty of players. In the US there seems to be some autonomy emerging with the Shopping.com and ShopZilla behemoths still number one for sheer merchant count, visitor reach and backing. With squillions of lesser sites popping up everyday vying for a slice of this lucrative “dollar-cake” (some even powered by the main players), trying to breathe new life into the price comparison concept has proven a struggle. In the UK a similar pattern is emerging, in respect to the millions of comparison sites emerging only. The big difference though, in my opinion, is that the ‘King of comparison shopping’ in the UK has yet to be crowned.

What would one look for in a good ‘price comparison’ King, if we were to crown one today?

Honesty – In other another words ‘transparency’. In this day and age of Urchin/Google Analytics even bedroom-ran businesses can see where their traffic is coming from and how many of their clicks are genuine and fair. Many merchants I know do still feel aggrieved with a lot of the comparison sites for still having outdated validation logic to calculate genuine clicks. PriceGrabber are probably the most honest out of them all and have a list as long as your arm (they invalidate clicks made by their own staff… gee, thanks) but I am sure they can do better. They invalidate duplicate clicks made within 30 seconds of each other on the same product, but I feel that is quite tight. Surely if someone finds your product on PG in the morning and then retraces their steps through PG in the evening, they should not have to pay for the same lead. Also if a browser with an IP based in Nigeria (no offense to my Nigerian brothers in need of a new top-of-the-range laptop) clicks on your store, you should not have to pay for the lead? The only company who delivers honesty in this area is CheckCost whose foreign policy is very xenophobic and excludes all clicks from IP’s based outside of the United Kingdom. They also give stores 24 hours breathing space between clicks made by the same browser on the same product.

Fair Rule – There is no doubt that when it comes to money and riches, most contenders for the crown are not bereft of short-change. Take Shopping.com, for example. Bought by eBay for a

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Kennard McGill asked:




The internet has become a valuable resource for consumers to research and find products online. Comparison shopping sites have made buying products online a valuable first step in many purchasing decisions.

The laws of supply and demand are evident in a competitive marketplace. The market forces businesses to find new ways to attract and keep customers by lowering prices, improving quality and offering new products and services.

As companies large or small employ tactics and strategies to lure customers, consumers are the ultimate beneficiaries of a competing marketplace. With more market competition customers ultimately find more quality products and services at better prices.

Seeing a snapshot of retailers in a particular market with the products and services they offer, much like they are displayed on comparison shopping sites, consumers can be empowered with more information to make better buying decisions.

Consumers searching for the best possible flowers shop deals online don’t have to rely on the first site they find in a search engine. They can find sites that cater to finding and showing the best flower deals online with keyword searches such as ‘flower shop deals’.

The advantage to using comparison sites for online flower shop deals is that consumers will often find combined deals such as discounts and coupons. The added incentives of coupons and discounts will often lead online shoppers to the retailers’ site because of these added savings.

The benefit of this medium is that consumers get to see an item they want with the price as well as the competitors’ price for the same product. In addition, comparison shopping sites have features such as, product details, product availability, and user reviews.

Editorial and user reviews tend to influence potential customers in their buying decision. User reviews are authored by customers who want to share their opinions and experiences about a product or service. Many online shoppers often feel more confident about making a purchase after they have read about the experience of other shoppers.

Even when the lowest price on the same product is matched, the final decision can often be narrowed down to the retailers’ market reputation. Some factors in your decision can be whether you made a previous purchase from that business before or whether they offer a money back guarantee or exchange.

With the growing number of comparison shopping sites online today, consumers can search the internet for a variety of different products in any market and find a comparison shopping site listing merchant prices and service details.

Whether you’re in the market for a new computer, shoes, insurance or flowers, shoppers can find greater value when using comparison shopping sites for the best price and service.

Clinton

Paul Turner asked:




The great energy price comparison race has started. As I write this it is January and along with millions of people all over the world I’m feeling the squeeze after paying my credit card bills.

For this reason, coupled with new year resolutions people turn their attention to saving some money where they can. Let’s face it, we all have to pay for our energy so it makes sense to pay for the least possible whilst maintaining quality of service.

To help you and I do this there are websites out there like money supermarket that will carry out an energy price comparison for you. You simply enter a few details and it goes and checks it’s database of current gas and electricity prices.

No I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this – they offer a useful service, but I would suggest this is the start of the journey – a step in the right direction but not the whole picture.

To make myself clear, my best price is actually with a company that didn’t even show on the comparison site I used. Another site did use them, but didn’t actually show the deal I am on with my current supplier, which is the Utility Warehouse.

I don’t understand why, but the energy comparison sites don’t seem to update quickly enough, or can’t work with multi service suppliers. I’m talking about companies that offer several utilities on one bill to save cost for example.

So what do I suggest? Well I suggest asking around your friends and family to see who they are on, probably one of the big 6 to be honest. Then use a gas and electricity price comparison site to see if that matches, and then compare some of the other multi service companies.

To get the absolute best price you may need to take another utility like the phone with them, but as calls are usually cheaper to make them more attractive anyway I guess that shouldn’t be an issue.

Often these suppliers are not as well known, so just make sure they have been around for a while. At the end of the day there is no actual difference to your gas or electricity supply. Think about it – when you last changed or moved in to a new house, nobody dug up the cables and pipes did they! Your gas and electricity will be exactly the same.

The same is true of there is a problem with your supply, The same contractors are used by most if not all of the suppliers out there. This means there is no difference in this crucial level of service.

I remember a survey from a couple of years ago that said consumer apathy was the main reason why people over paid for their utility bills. As prices rise I urge you not to be the one with apathy. Energy price comparison sites have made it very easy to search around now so you’ll have no excuse.

Steve