A guide to the world of price comparison sites

As a webshop owner, you are making a huge mistake if you don’t use this tool!

If you have an online shop, it is essential that your products are listed on price comparison sites. Customers like them because they make the decision process easier, they can see the offers of several companies in one place.

If you use them well, these sites can be one of your best converting channels, and a significant percentage of your revenue can come from them.

But which of the many options should you choose?

What are price comparison sites?

Price comparison sites do not have their own products, they list products from partner webshops. Potential buyers can compare the prices of the companies selling a product, the guarantees they offer, delivery times, etc.

The best known Hungarian examples are Árukereső, eMag, Alza, Árgép.

In addition to the basic price comparison function, depending on the site, as a webshop you can bid to be ranked higher in search results and other opportunities to stand out from the competition are also offered. They can also run Google Shopping ads for your products through their partner programs.

This gives your potential customers even more opportunities to see your products.

Types of price comparison sites

Classic

• You can find products from many different categories.
• Such a site is Price engine, Search for goods.

Thematic

• They focus specifically on one or two product categories.
• Good examples are Favi, Glami, Shopalike.

Alternative

• Typically computer equipment, they compare offers on criteria other than price, and even collect the last of each product
• This includes olcsobbat.hu, kirakat.hu, depo.hu.

Online Marketers

• They are not classic price comparison sites, but they do have that function. In addition to their own products, they also offer products from partner companies, which can be purchased specifically through them.
• The best known are eMag, Extreme Digital, Amazon.

Google Shopping

• It is not a price comparison site, but it works in a similar way.

Read on for more information about each site!

Classic price comparison sites

Search for goods

It has a huge number of visitors, with 20 million users per month. Find products from any product category here.
The products are not (only) sorted by price, paid listings are given priority at the top of the results list and can be bid on. You can also stand out from the competition with a reliable shop label.

They also run Google Shopping campaigns for your products. In addition, the Shopping Marketplace allows you to add products to your shopping cart and purchase them directly on the site, making the shopping process faster and simpler.

Price engine

In contrast to the Goods Finder, there are no paid placement or CPC bid options, products are displayed strictly by price. Reviews of your products can give extra exposure on their main page. On the product pages, a price chart shows prices for the last period.

It attracts an average of 3 million visitors a month, but you can find almost as many products on it as on Shopping. Products from all product categories can be found on the site, with electronics and household appliances being the most common.

They also run Google Shopping campaigns in 19 countries.

Thematic price comparison sites

Favi

A site focused on home furnishings and furniture, offering customers a number of filtering options to help them with their search, such as colour, size or even style. It is also present in Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Poland.

Glami

A fashion-focused site, with mainly female visitors. As with Favi, users can filter by size, brand, style, season, or even by specific shops. It is present in 18 countries, including Germany, France and Italy.

Shopalike

Site specialising in fashion, home, interior design, beauty with an average of 1 million visitors per month. They also put a lot of emphasis on content marketing, driving visitors to the site with blog posts. You can also bid for a better ranking here. They have Shopping ads in 13 countries and you can also run product ads within the site.

Alternative price comparison sites

Cheaper.com

It is primarily an electronics comparison site, with an average of half a million visitors a month, but it also has products in other categories. Bidding for better sites is possible, and commission-based cooperation is also possible instead of CPC. Products advertised here will also be posted on Kirakat.hu. It can be effective with fewer products, even as few as ten.

They have a dedicated team of Google Shopping experts working to run your Shopping campaigns. You can use either the product feed for Product Finder/Machine or Google’s own feed. You make any necessary changes to your feed.

Depo

Hungary’s first price comparison site, with 3.6 million products from 520 suppliers. You can find electronics and household goods, cosmetics and healthcare products, clothes, stationery, food and even adult toys. They also run Google Shopping campaigns for your products.

The site is free to access, but there is a fixed fee for each click.

Online marketplaces

They are not classic price comparison sites, as they do not just list partner products but sell them, but it is worth mentioning them, as you can buy the same product from several partner companies, so they also have a price comparison function.

eMag & Extreme Digital

The main profile of eMag (and Edigital, which was recently merged into eMag) is electronic devices. It also offers clothing, sports equipment, books and stationery, but also toys, cosmetics and even food. It has 6 million visitors per month and is present in the Romanian and blogging markets.

Amazon

The international company, known to many, was announced last year that it would soon be coming to Hungary. It is not yet known when the Hungarian Amazon will be launched, but it could transform the Hungarian e-commerce market in a big way within a few years. It is currently used to reach customers in Western Europe.

Google Shopping

For some time now, in addition to the usual results in Google searches, the search engine has also been listing product listings with images and prices, where users can compare different offers, just like on a price comparison site. Many users then stop searching and choose from the products displayed here.

Many price comparison sites also have the advantage of running Google Shopping ads for your products, which can be displayed here.

Why make huge mistakes if you don’t live with them?

Price comparison sites are visited by users with the express purpose of making a purchase, and can therefore have a very high conversion rate. Used properly, they can in some cases increase revenues by up to 40%. In addition, we are talking about a constantly evolving market, and trends abroad show that there is great potential for these sites.

It would be a mistake to miss such an opportunity.

What if my products are not the cheapest on the market?

As you can see from the examples above, not all sites are based on price, you can get in front of the cheapest products by buying paid sites and use other means to make your offers stand out even more. So it can be worth being on price comparison sites even if your products are not the cheapest on the market. However, it is important to choose well which sites to feature your products on and to use a conscious strategy.

For this, you may want to enlist the help of an agency that also deals with price comparison sites, their experience can help you to make sure you choose the sites that best fit your company’s profile, and with the right strategy, you can really effectively harness the power of this valuable marketing tool.

Something to keep in mind

To take advantage of the benefits of price comparison sites, it is important that everything is set up properly, the product feed is managed and monitored properly, and bids are set. There are a number of optimisation options available to you, which you may want to explore further, but as an agency with extensive experience, we can help.

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