Comparison Shopping Engines offer more than just traffic to e-tailers

The internet retail industry is crowded with too many online merchants and each would adopt a different channel strategy to promote products in the online market to reach potential buyers. You might already be aware of comparison shopping engine and its reasons for existence. Comparison shopping engines are one the powerful mediums for online shoppers not only to conduct research but also to find the right online merchants to buy products. In this post I am not going to tell you how to increase your traffic or conversion rate via CSE, but I would like to share my thoughts regarding how online merchants can gain secondary advantages apart from the more obvious benefits by listing in shopping engines.

Economies of scale:
Any online merchant would want to increase his span of customer reach. The good news for online merchants is that there are a plethora of shopping destination sites and comparison shopping engines which gives these merchants visibility to millions of potential customers with just a click. Therefore etailers get access to huge database of potential customers.

Cost-effective:
Often merchants may land up paying for huge traffic (CPC), with low conversion rates. Different comparison engines have different revenue models like CPC, CPA, flat rate etc. Depending on the quality of traffic one can decide which model to opt for. Some shopping engines allow merchants to host their products for free. In the initial stages it makes more sense to opt for free listing or being charged only when a sale is made (CPA). So merchants actually pay peanuts to sell their products as compared to CPC. Therefore shopping engine is a powerful and cost-effective customer acquisition channel for Merchants if they make the right choice.

Brand recognition:
Appearing in more number of shopping engines makes the merchant’s brand familiar. Research shows that consumers are more likely to buy from those brands which are more familiar than the ones which are not. Therefore familiarizing the brand makes the brand more recognizable among users looking to buy what the merchant sells.

Apart from these tangible benefits, a merchant also gains some intangible benefits which can help him to establish a competitive advantage over others.

Competitive Intelligence:
A product may be fast moving in a store, but the same product may not sell well online. This could be because the competitors are offering the same product at a lower price or there are offers clubbed with it. This sort of information is crucial because it helps the merchant to price his products better.


SEO/SEM Advantage:
Most users search products by generic words. For example, if a user is hunting for digital camera for a specific model, it is unlikely that the merchant’s website appears in the first few search pages. The search results will throw up some review and shopping sites before a merchant’s website appears, unless the merchant has done a lot of SEO and SEM which is costly affair. Users are most likely to visit the shopping sites which appear first in the search results than browsing pages in the search results. Therefore a merchant is just 2-3 clicks away when listed in shopping sites and get visibility rather than being lost in the search results.

Example:
Let’s have a look at the shopping engines which are being listed in the first three pages of Google search results for the following keywords.

Keyword: Camcorder
Shopping Engines: Pricegrabber, Pricerunner, Bizrate, Kelkoo.
Link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=camcorder&start=0&sa=N

Keyword: Sony KDL 46W3000
Shopping Engines: Yahoo shopping, Pricerunner, Kelkoo, Mysimon, Twenga, Shopping.
Link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Sony+KDL-46W3000&start=0&sa=N


Keyword: Canon PowerShot A590
Shopping Engines: Pricegrabber, Pricerunner
Link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=VXW&q=Canon+PowerShot+A590&start=0&sa=N

Keyword: Nike Shox R4silver for Women
Shopping Engines: Mysimon, Shopping, Shoplocal, Dealtime, Shopperstomp.
Link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=LKr&q=Nike+Shox+R4silver+for+Women&start=0&sa=N

Keyword: black adidas sports shoes
Shopping Engines: Kelkoo, Bizrate, Yahoo shopping, Ciao.
Link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=QJr&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=black+adidas+sports+shoes&spell=1



Customer Feedback:
Who can suggest better than your own customers. Shopping engines provide a feature of rating and reviewing merchants. This can help merchants in understanding their strengths and improve in those areas where they lack. One can also find out why consumers prefer some merchants. Consumers prefer merchants who offer prompt services and have a good reputation online. A good review about the merchant is definitely going to facilitate sales.

Common platform:
The shopping engine gives merchants a common platform where they come to know what others are selling, what products are fast moving, what services are offered by others.