Comparison Shopping Engines

Web startups are always looking for an edge in web marketing. A new tool is the comparison shopping engines, which are search engines for products. Merchants upload their products to a CSE, then when users search for a product, the merchant and competitor products show up. Ranking is different based on CSE. Some sites rank based on bid while others sort by relevance and popularity. Comparison shopping engines add another weapon to the eCommerce Pay-Per-Click arsenal.

CSE is gaining popularity over traditional Pay-Per-Click marketing because the traffic generated has a higher conversion rate. The person clicking on a listing is likely further along in the buying process than someone in a general search. Furthermore, listings feature a product picture and merchant specified description before the user even clicks which helps funnel serious buyers.

Like all forms of internet marketing, effective web development cannot be overlooked when funneling in potential customers. The linked landing page from the CSE should be easy to use, or that paid referral can not result in a conversion. A good domain name and competent web design are still musts.

At the moment CSEs are less crowded so merchants do not have to compete in the crowded marketplace of major search engines. The customer benefits because he can research product reviews and price from one web location. Right now Yahoo! shopping is the CSE most prefered by online retail. Although the popularity of sites like Yahoo! Shopping is valuable, less popular sites can be more profitable. The PPC model often creates a bidding war for web commerce sites trying to find a ranking. Less popular sites may cost less per click and per conversion. Around 25 percent of web merchants use the sites as part of their online marketing strategy. However, only 10 percent of web retail sites use 2-4 CSE sites.

Although more than half of web consumers report using CSEs, it is important for web startups to have a way to measure Return on Investment. All CSEs offer some reporting features for web designers, but the best way to track investments is through third party analytics. Most web development firms offer some sort of analytics support.

One way to track your success with CSEs is to create unique URLs for the product feed. Unique domain names can be purchased also, but really all you need is to separate the traffic generated from different sources for accurate measurement. Popular shopping carts like Mivia and Volusion allow the creation of parallel affiliate sites. Each affiliate's unique URL can be tracked to see if Comparison Shopping Engines are actually a good investment. Consumers are using CSEs to shop, but the average eCommerce site is not doing the analytics necessary to get value out of the system.