What are Price Comparison engines?
We all want the best deals. The best refers either to quality of product or the price of the product. But, when we shop for a specific product offered by a particular brand, it is all about the best price. Have you ever wondered we often go to the same grocery store, footwear showroom, or clothing emporium just because they once offered a price 3-5% lower than others. We all are price conscious until and unless we get the inexhaustible treasure in our backyard. This might be the reason why stores like Walmart, Sainsbury, Dmart, Tesco or Koles are making billions every year just by offering the products a penny cheaper than the market.
However, the way of shopping has changed, and thus, people are getting everything from their smartphones. Unlike our local markets, there are limitless retailers to compare the prices from. But we still want the best deal. The Price Comparison Engines shows up here to digitize our bargaining habit. These engines compare the products among the range of retailers’ websites and apps and present the prices being offered by the different retailers.
Working Principle of Price Comparison Engines
Price comparison engine carries a search bar. Others might also have the feature of bar code scanning to scan the product. Once the product is searched by user, price comparison engine analyzes the list of retailers and websites providing the similar products along with their selling price. All this information is then conferred to users to select the deal which they prefer the best.
Best Price Comparison Websites in 2022
Just like the retailers, there is an ocean for price comparison websites as well. However, there are plenty of websites which you should not prefer as information is not very reliable. To make sure you are relying on the trustworthy platforms, we are here enlisting the best price comparison website to help you grab the best deal:
1. Google Shopping
Monthly Traffic: 86.2 billion
How can it be possible that we are talking about a kind of search engine and Google doesn’t top the list. Google Shopping is one of the largest and best comparison shopping platforms for your needs. Just enter the name of the product in the search bar and get the best deal for the product. In case you are a retailer, the Google Shopping website will also tell you about the average product price, benchmark product price, and the benchmark product price difference.
2. Yahoo Shopping
Monthly Traffic: 3.35 billion
In case you want to exchange your time with the price of a product, Yahoo Shopping is a good choice for price comparison. By creating a wishlist of products on Yahoo Shopping, you can track the price of the product time-to-time. Having collaboration with brands like Amazon and Walmart, the firm can provide reliable information about the products.
3. Camel Camel Camel
Monthly traffic: 3.8 million
If you don’t want to compare the prices from different retailers and want the best price on Amazon only, you might have to wait a little but CamelCamelCamel will arrange it for you. The platform highlights the price drops over time and gives you an idea about the time product can be more affordable to you.
4. BizRate
Monthly traffic: 14.2 million
BizRate not only compares the prices but also provides you with the complete description of the product. The user-friendly interface of BizRate makes the shopping experience even better for you. The unique feature such as downloading the user manual of the product makes it stand out from the competitors. Moreover, the user can even set the price drop alarm for any product to avoid missing a deal.
5. Price Grabber
Monthly traffic: 96.6K
When you are a frequent online buyer, you would prefer to stick to one price comparison website for all kinds of deals. So, PriceGrabber is the best platform for your needs. This platform lets you compare the prices of all the products irrespective of domain and type of product. This way you can grab a product at best deal as a consumer while can achieve advantages by providing the product at competitive price as a retailer.
6. Shopping.com
Monthly traffic: 1.4 million
Shopping.com is the platform where the users don’t only compare the prices of the products but the features as well. Using the platform, you can compare every aspect of a product that might bother you for a worthy purchase. So, Shopping.com doesn’t only help you secure the best deal in terms of price but in terms of features and quality as well.
7. Price Runner
Monthly traffic: 2.24 million
There is a clan that trusts only the big and specific retailers for online shopping . so, PriceRunner is designed for this niche clan audience. The platform compares the prices of products from the big and leading retailers only such as Amazon, ASOS, eBay, House of Fraser etc.
8. My Smart Price
Monthly traffic: 7.3 million
When your shopping cart is carrying the electronics items only, MySmartPrice can be your choice for price comparison. The platform lets you compare the price of any electronic item from different retailers and choose the best deal. The search bar of this price comparison engine carries all the range of smartphones, television, computer, camera, audio-visual devices, home appliances, self care devices, smart gadgets, and many more.
9. PriceBlink
Monthly traffic: 206K
PriceBlink was introduced in 2010 and is an old player in the price comparison platform industry. Now working as an extension, PriceBlink offers insight into a range of available deals for the product you are searching for. Moreover, it makes shopping more cost-efficient by providing coupons applicable to different retailers. The results of PriceBlink come mainly from the retailers such as eBay, Best Buy, Newegg, Amazon, Office Depot, Adorama, etc.
10. Honey
Monthly traffic: 21.3 million
Honey.com is another multi-feature extension used by a broad consumer base. Primarily famous for its coupon services, the platform also helps to find the best deal, track the drop in pricing, and avail discounts on products provided by numerous websites. So far, the platform has helped its users save billions of dollars by applying the coupon code and availing the discounted deals.
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Best Price Comparison Apps
1. ShopSavvy
ShopSavvy is an app specifically designed for Smartphone shopping. However, the niche product base doesn’t lower its usability, but the features of the platform significantly throw the usability on the successive floor. ShopSavvy doesn’t compare the prices of smartphones on online retail websites only but it also compares the prices at different offline stores as well.
2. QR Reader
- Play store downloads: 1M+
- Available on: Android
The application is available for both iOS and Android users. You just need to scan the QR code of the product, and a list of prices offered by several retailers like Amazon, eBay, etc., will fall upon your smartphone. Besides the best deals, the QR reader will provide you with all the necessary information about the product.
3. BuyVia
In case you wish to find out attractive deals in your locality only, provide location access to the app, search for the product in the search bar or scan the barcode, and know about all the dealers providing their respective deals for the product. Moreover, surf through the online deals offered by Amazon, Macy’s, Walmart, Nordstrom, and many others to select the best one.
4. MyCartSaving
The app is very similar to BuyVia as it provides you with the best deal among the pool of online retailers. Moreover, kudos to the additional feature, the app will also send you an email about the price drop of a specific product you were interested in buying. Furthermore, the app also provides you with discount coupons to make the deals attractive to you.
5. Flipp
According to app creators, the platform has helped its North American users to save an average of $45/week in their shopping. You can even share the best deals with your contacts as well. The app also updates the deals weekly.
How to List Products on Price Comparison Engines?
Mainly the retailers are required to submit the complete and formatted product feed. The feed is written according to the guidelines and specifications defined by CSE (Comparative Shopping Engines) and thus is also updated frequently. CSE uses scripts to ingest the data and display the information on the result page.
There are apps as well to feed the data. The retailers can use these apps to make the submission of feed to CSE easier or automatic. The data is optimized automatically, irrespective of how it has been created.
Benefits of Price Comparison Engines (for Buyers)
Getting the best deal
Undoubtedly, the most significant benefit of the price comparison engines for the buyer is getting the best deal. The platform compares prices from different and reliable retailers so customers can choose the most cost-efficient deal.
Plenty of information at one place
Most of the price comparison engines don’t merely talk about the price but the features of the product as well. The price comparison engines are good platforms to compare the features and quality of the different products.
Time saving
The price comparison engine saves a lot of time for the buyers by providing insight into all the deals in one place. Buyers don’t have to scroll through the websites to get the right deal.
Benefits of Price Comparison Engines (for Retailers)
Understand consumer behavior
Price comparison websites are of significant help in understanding consumer behavior. There are numerous products in which the customers are price conscious, while another category in which the customers prefer quality over price. So, retailers can get an idea about how to attract more customers for different types of products.
Set competitive prices
Retailers can very quickly analyze the price being offered by their competitors for different products. It assists them in setting competitive pricing and attracting the price-conscious audience toward themselves.
Getting more customers
Price comparison engines are an excellent medium to get the buyers. A number of websites have billions of users. If a retailer is listed on a good price comparison website, there are heavy chances that they might get the customers through the website by providing a beneficial deal.
Facts About Price Comparison Engines
- Global price comparison websites were estimated to be worth $2.8 billion in 2019.
- The market is expected to have a CAGR of 8% between 2020-2030.
- Retail products have the largest share of these websites, which accounts for 30% of revenue share.
- Google Shopping, one of the biggest price comparison websites, has more than 86 billion monthly traffic.
How Can a Similar Website or App Make Money for You?
Developing an app or website to manage it well and assisting users is nothing less than a good investment in the digital world. Gone are the days when gold, floor, and stocks were the only options to make money grow. As you can see, the efficiently managed price comparison engines have a user base of millions and billions. Setting up a similar platform can be your key to a future growth trajectory, and there is no reason you should make any delay. By managing the website and providing good insight to the users, you can earn a good income from the platform. Following are some of the ways you will be earning income through your website only:
- By selling space for the advertisement to interested clients
- By implementing a fee from the different retailers to list them on the website
- By charging commission from the retailers for every purchase made through your website
- By selling the data of customers by anonymizing it
Cost of Developing a Similar Website or App
Just like the prices of products differ from retailer to retailer, the cost of app or website development also differs on different factors. The foremost factors of difference are features and functionalities. More features & functionalities you wish to instill in your app or website, the more it will cost. It takes time for developers to instill features in an app. The developers charge their time on an hourly or weekly basis. So more time the developer dedicates to the website or app development, more will be the cost of developing the app.
To be approximate, it generally takes around four months for the app or website development team to develop a price comparison engine which costs about $30,000-$40,000.
Wrapping Up
Price comparison websites are now substituting bargaining for online shopping. The relevant apps and websites provide insight into the best deal for a product that a range of retailers offers. Moreover, it has also emerged as an excellent tool for retailers and product manufacturers. With the assistance from these platforms, retailers can know about the price being offered by their competitors and set a better price to attract the customers. These kinds of websites and apps add value for both the customers as well as sellers.
So, don’t be just a user of these engines like other billions of people. Instead, be the owner of one. Put the dedication to work and see the sleeping income replacing your primary income in the upcoming years.