Chapter 11. Comparison Shopping Engines

Move over, Google and Overture. There's a new breed of search engine in town ‚ one that exclusively caters to customers and their buying experience. Think online shopping mall plus search functionality. What's the result? You've guessed it: comparison shopping engines.

Welcome to a marketplace where consumers compare products in the same category by multiple purchasing factors; price is a popular one. Having shopping information and tools in one central location helps consumers shop more efficiently , according to a ForeSee Results December 2002 survey on why online consumers use shopping engines (see Figure 11.1).

Figure 11.1. Shopping engines offer purchasing-specific benefits to consumers.

Although not all products are good matches for a shopping engine merchant program, if general search engines are advancing your product sales, then be sure to look into this opportunity.