SHOPPING SITES

Compare Both Free And CPC Based Price Comparison Websites

Product search engines (also known as product comparison engines, price comparison engines & shopping engines) offer a new way for web users to find the products they are looking for. When a person visits a product search engine they are able search products by price, store & store ratings allowing visitors to easily compare products. Each product in a search result usually includes an image, description, price and a link to buy from the advertiser’s website.

Shopping Search Engines can be free of cost to retailers or charge stores on a cost per click basis. As with PPC ads, CPC Shopping sites can get quite pricey and lower profit margins drastically. Businesses should take advantage of all the Product Search Engines which are free of cost. Why list in one price comparison engine when you could list in all of them for no cost allowing retailers reaching out to more people. All these shopping sites are great for consumers but which ones are better for retailers? With numerous shopping engines available on the web, how do you choose the right one for your products? Below is a list of popular product comparison engines, their fees and services offered to retailers/advertisers.

Product Search Engines Offering Free Retailer Listings

Google Shopping – Google offers a free product listing to e-retailers. Retailers can upload a feed of their products or input product information individually including image URL, product URL, price and various other product specifics. Google Shopping visitors can sort products by relevance of their search terms, price, brand names, product ratings and store ratings. Products listed in this free price comparison engine expire after 31 days.

Live Products – Live, a Microsoft Corporation website also offers e-stores free product listings. Advertisers can upload their product information manually or in bulk via their FTP. Visitors of Live Products can search by product brand, category & price range. When visitors find the product they are looking for they then click to compare prices, which brings up a list of retailers and the product price for each. Visitors can click on the retailer they are interested in buying from and are brought to their website to purchase. This Product Comparison site offers visitors the ability to quickly and easily compare prices from different retailers. Items listed in Live Products expire after 30 days.

MSN Shopping –An affiliate website of Live Products offers retailers free product listings. MSN Shopping products are submitted and updated through Live Products. Visitors of this Shopping Comparison Engine can filter results by category, brand, seller and price range. They can also sort their results by price, ratings and alphabetically.

TheFind.com – E-stores can add their products with ease and free of cost to TheFind.com. When searching for a product visitors are offered the choice of filtering results by brands and stores. After finding the product they are looking for they are given all the product results with prices and store names and are listed in no particular order. Once a searcher finds the product and price they click on that store and are brought to their website. Retailers submit their products and this price comparison engine will crawl their website to constantly update product listings.

Shopping Search Engines with Cost Per Click Retailer Listings

About.com Shopping – Products are listed on this price comparison engine for a cpc basis which is powered by PriceGrabber.com. Retailers interested in being listed on About.com need to submit their information to PriceGrabber.com. Visitors of this shopping site find the product they are looking for and click on compare prices to view prices of all listed e-stores.

Amazon.com – Amazon.com allows retailers to list their products for a fee of $39.99 per month. In addition to this shopping search engines listing fee, retailers also have to pay Amazon a percentage of sales. Percentages paid by retailers are dependent on the type of products they sell. The obvious advantage of Amazon is the mass amount of traffic it receives, but in many cases the costs of listing outweigh profits. When visitors search for products they are offered an assortment of filter options to find the product that best suits them. E-stores can upload their products either one at a time or in bulk.

AOL Shopping – The popular website AOL, has a shopping comparison site which is also powered by PriceGrabber.com. AOL Shopping allows visitors the ability to filter searches by brand and price range. These filter options allow users to locate the product they want quicker and compare retailers easier than most other product comparison websites. Retailers wishing to be listed on this price comparison site should submit their data through PriceGrabber.com.

Ask Shopping – This product comparison site is powered by Pronto.com. Retailers can submit their product listings in bulk to Pronto.com and pay on a cpc basis. When visitors find the product they want they are given a list of retailers and their corresponding price. Clicking on a price will bring you to that retailer’s website and they will then be charged a cpc fee.

Bizrate – This product comparison site is an affiliate of Shopzilla. All listed products were uploaded in bulk through Shopzilla. Bizrate has the same filters and listing practices as its shopping comparison affiliate, Shopzilla.

DealTime – Part of the Shopping.com network, DealTime allows retailers to list their products on a cpc basis. Retailers wishing to be listed on this shopping comparison engine can upload their data through Shopping.com. This price comparison website offers the same search filters as most other shopping engines.

Excite Shopping – Products on this comparison site are listed on a cpc basis and are submitted via Pronto.com. This shopping engine offers the similar search filters as other comparison sites, including: price, brand and merchant. Stores which carry the searched product are listed along with their prices and when clicked on visitors are brought to that merchant’s website.

Lycos Shopping – Lycos Shopping is another affiliate of the price comparison site, Pronto.com. Retailers wishing to list their products on this shopping site must submit their data through Pronto.com. Search filters on this price comparison site include: price range, brand, product features and merchants. When a visitor locates a product and a price they like, they click on a price and are brought to that retailers site and that e-store is charged their cpc fee.

MySimon – MySimon is yet another PriceGrabber.com affiliate. Merchants interested in submitting their products should do so through PriceGrabber.com. When a searcher locates the product they are interested in on this shopping site they can compare prices of all e-stores carrying that item, allowing them to locate the best price. After clicking on the best price a visitor is brought to that advertiser’s website.

NexTag.com – Retailers can list their products on this price comparison engine on a cost per click basis. When a searcher clicks on a product the retailer is than charged a fee based on the product being sold. As with PPC, a person can click on an ad go to the retailer’s website and they not buy, costing the e-store money and lowering profit margins. This shopping comparison site accepts bulk product uploads but in order to set up an account be ready to deposit $150.00.

Price.com – Price.com offers e-stores the ability to list their products at a cpc basis. When a visitor searches this price comparison engine for a product they are given a list of items along with images. When a visitor clicks on the product they are interested in they are given a list of stores, the store rating and their corresponding prices. When a visitor finds the store they want to buy from and click on the name they are brought to that advertiser’s website to purchase and that advertiser is then charged their cpc rate.

PriceGrabber.com – This product comparison website allows e-stores to list their products for a cost per click fee. When visitors find a product they are given a list of online retailers and their corresponding prices. After the searcher finds the price they want they click the product and are brought to that retailers store and the retailer is charged a small fee. Although the cpc fees are minimal, if they are clicked on numerous times it can become quite expensive. For retailers to list their products in this comparison engine they must deposit $50.00 and upload their data via a bulk feed.

PriceRunner – Retailers are able to list their products at a cpc rate on PriceRunner.com. E-stores can upload their products to this product search engine in bulk. PriceRunner does not offer all the search filters for visitors that other price comparison engines offer. Searchers can only filter results by brands and types. When results are listed they show an image, store name and product price. When a visitor finds the product they are searching for they click the store link and are brought to that e-store.

PriceScan.com –PriceScan.com offers e-stores the ability to list their products on a cost per click basis. Visitors search for a product and are brought to a page with various search matches. Clicking on a product bring visitors of this price comparison site to a listing of retailers along with their prices. When a searcher clicks on the retailer they wish to purchase from they are brought to their website to buy and the retailer is charged a fee. To setup a retailer account with PriceScan, be ready to deposit $50.00.

Pronto.com – E-Stores can list their products on this comparison site on a cost per click basis. The cpc fees paid vary depending on the type of products being listed, but are pretty consistent with other cpc comparison sites. Searchers of this shopping site can filter their search results by price, brand and merchant. After locating the product they want, visitors can compare prices from all retailers listing that item and when choosing a merchant are brought to their website and the merchant is then charged their cost per click fee. Retailers can upload their products in bulk to this product search engine.

Shopping.com – Retailers can list products on this price comparison engine on a cpc basis. Visitors of this popular shopping site can filter product results by price, brand and store. Product searchers can also view reviews of site retailers. When visitors are interested in a product they click on a price and are brought to that merchant’s website and the retailer is charged a fee.

Shopzilla – E-stores wishing to be listed on this price comparison engine pay based on a cost per click fee schedule. Products listed on Shopzilla can be uploaded in bulk and are listed on numerous other affiliate shopping sites. Searches can filter products by brand, price, store and numerous other filters depending on the product. All products which match a category are listed in no particular order and include the store name and their corresponding price.

Yahoo Shopping – CPC pricing is used for retailers wishing to list their products on this very popular shopping engine with fees varying depending on product categories. Retailers can also pay to be a featured merchant and have their products listed on top of searches. Along with the normal search filters, this comparison site offers visitors the ability to compare product listings side by side, allowing them to easily find the best deal.

Even after reviewing the list of shopping search engines you may still be asking yourself “which ones are the best to list in”? Although all of the above comparison sites are popular and get a lot of traffic it is expensive to list in all of them. Aside from listing in all of the free product comparison sites there is no real answer to which of the cpc comparison sites are best to list in. The best way to find the right solutions for your business is to just try them one at a time. By reviewing the cpc comparison site statistics for your account you can tell how many clicks you received and through further reviewing analytics you can track which products were purchased. The comparison site which drives the most traffic to your website and gives you the most purchases is the best solution for a successful e-store. WebDuck Designs has experience with most of the above shopping comparison sites. Contact WebDuck Designs to discuss your options.