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eCommerce advertising benchmarks, trends & tactics extracted from 15,000 online stores
Comparison shopping engines are websites that consumers can use to find multiple retailers offering the product they want to buy.
They can compare the offering from each of these retailers and select the one that is most appealing. Comparison Shopping Engines (CSE) are also known as price comparison websites.
From a retailers’ perspective, comparison shopping engines are a method of online advertising. They allow retailers to upload their product data feeds, set bids for particular products or product categories.
The products in the data feed then appear on the comparison shopping engine. This is alongside products from other retailers.
When a user clicks on one of your products, they go to your website where they can complete the purchase.
Examples of comparison shopping engines include:
Marketplaces, like Amazon and eBay, or Bol have things in common with comparison shopping engines. You can list products on marketplaces in a similar way to comparison shopping engines.
Also, those products will appear alongside other retailers when consumers browse or search the marketplace. The main difference is how the user makes a purchase.
Most comparison shopping engines operate on a cost per click (CPC) basis. With CPC, you don't pay anything unless a user clicks on your product listing to visit your website.
This is where they complete the purchase on your website. On a marketplace, the transaction takes place on the marketplace’s website. For example, on Amazon or on eBay.
Only at this stage, when making a sale, does the marketplace charge you. This is a cost per acquisition (CPA) model.
Comparison shopping engines offer a wide range of general benefits. There are also specific benefits when you compare them to using marketplaces or other types of PPC ads. Those benefits include:
There are three things you should prioritize when listing your products on comparison shopping engines. To increase conversions:
Providing you take the steps above, you will generate profitable returns from comparison shopping engines. This makes them an essential part of the customer acquisition strategy.
DataFeedWatch is data feed optimization and management software that enables merchants on Magento, Shopify, Volusion, 3Dcart, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, OpenCart, VersaCommerce, and numerous other shopping carts to optimize their product data feed for Google and 2000+ Shopping Channels in 60 countries. The most intuitive and easy data feed management and optimization tool on the market. Free trial and live demo available.