What Does It Take To Create A Price Comparison Website?

We often seek advice or need to cross-check while making an important decision. It usually happens while we shop online. We compare and check price quality – delivery time – service – and all other relevant factors. “Too many cooks in the kitchen” only create chaos. It is we who eventually need to decide who will prepare the food. The best way to execute with efficiency is to set up teams where communication is frequent among a select few and deliverables are met at ease. We need to involve representatives from ‘different teams’ at some point before roll-out for socialization purposes to get their perspective and insights into possible road bumps. We also require comparing various websites/applications to have a confirmation on the best available price.

Types of Price Comparison Website

We have price comparison websites for shopping, insurance, airlines, cars, electronics and mobile phones that offer plenty of information and make the buying process smoother.

How Does a Price Comparison Website Work?

Earlier consumers used to wander from shop to shop to get what they liked. It was a matter of features, quality, price, and brand name. Information is readily available on the internet; consumers still compare products while making their purchase decisions. Consumers compare (1)  electronics, (2) appliances, (3) streaming devices, (4) vehicles, (5) beauty products, (6) home decor items, (7) vacation trips, (8) toothpaste and likewise.

It is significant for a business owner to understand these various consumer comparison habits to strategize visibility with these consumers who are on an active lookout for sellers. Let’s plunge into how consumers compare prices to make their purchase decisions.

• The Traditional Way – Pick two products, check their prices, take a second opinion for more insight on making a purchase decision.

• Word of Mouth Marketing – Businesses rely on what consumers have to say. If consumers chirp about your product in a referral program, it goes a long way in building the reputation and brings instant gratification.

• Search Engines – It is the most common form of searching and comparing products online. Consumers check what they want and from where they can acquire it at a reasonable price. It factors in businesses’ marketing efforts.

• Improving Search Engine Optimization – Businesses should follow SEO best practices to reach out to consumers. Content plays a role in defining the trust factor of a business. Mentioning on its business page and Google makes a business identifiable online and is pertinent in forming an opinion. Amazon search engine has purchased and return percentage information for products, and it considers that information when ranking products organically. Google has niche information about its user base.

• Vertical Search Engines – It is another name for price comparison websites – (for shopping: Google Shopping, my company GoBazzar, PriceGrabber, Library of Congress, Mocavo, Nuroa, Trulia, and Yelp etc.).

• Improving your visibility on price comparison websites – Organic marketing is not a quick fix. It requires strategy and making some tweaks to see the results in the long haul. Businesses can reach their customers by partnering with comparison shopping websites. Enabling a bit of artificial intelligence can be insightful in – (1) gaining customer’s perspectives, (2) potential buying decisions and (3) search history.

• Partnering with Price Comparison Applications like (1) Shopsavvy and (2) ShopMania etc. and Price Comparison Websites like (1) Google Shopping, (2) PriceGrabber, (3) Shopping.com, (4) Shopzilla, (5) Bing Shopping Campaigns, (6) Pronto, (7) Bizrate, (8) Amazon Sponsored Products, (9) Camelcamelcamel, (10) ShopMania, (11) BuyVia, (12) ShopSavvy, (13) Yahoo Shopping, (14) Pricepirates, (15) MyShopping Datafeed and (16) Idealo – enables businesses to access the app channels and makes it convenient for the consumers to choose the best one.

• Review Sites – It helps customers to form an opinion before buying a product. Some popular sites are Angie’s List, Quora, Trustpilot etc., where consumers and businesses review their products.

What do You Require to Start a Price Comparison Business?

There are two pre-requisites to starting an online price comparison website:

• Determine your business domain – expertise – niche
• Be concise and clear about your purpose

Features To Include In An Online Price Comparison Website

If a person is looking for an airline, they would like to know about – Airline, Airport, Time of departure and arrival, Travel time, Layovers, Type of aircraft and Ticket class (economy or business).

If a person is looking for a smartphone, they would like to know about – Model, Screen size, Storage, Camera specs, Display resolution, and Carrier.

Therefore the main features should be:

• Listings
• Search and filters
• Reviews and ratings
• Price history and alerts
• Extra features: Rewards program
• Barcode/QR code scanner

How Price Comparison Websites Collect Data?

They collect data via

• Integrating APIs
• Web scraping/parsing
• Crowdsourcing
• On-demand quoting
• Adding data manually;

How do Price Comparison Websites Earn?

There are three entities involved in the process: Consumer, Retailer, and Affiliate Partner. Affiliate marketing implies that the price comparison website owner has permission to share links to the vendor. Such ‘links’ have a fee and a unique identifier to know the whereabouts of the customers.

Some price comparison websites also make money with advertisements or by promoting specific vendors.

Conclusive: How does price comparison from various websites affect the purchase decision?

Consumers can get what they want at the price they seek and can afford. Offline shopping becomes stress-free if you compare prices beforehand and select the best store to get your product at the best price. Skip the queue at the cash counter and receive an unbiased opinion and save a lot of time and money. Know about our approach to creating a price comparison website!