10 Best Comparison Shopping Engines to Increase Ecommerce Sales

Price comparison websites


In this brief guide, we’ll explain what comparison shopping engines are, tell you about some of the best platforms available, and show you how to get your products listed.

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What are comparison shopping engines?


For example, let's say I want to buy a Rubik's Cube and want to see what my options are, or maybe find the best price. I can go to Google Shopping (one of the most popular CSE's around) and initiate a search. Here's what comes up:

Comparison shopping engine example.


10 top price comparison websites

  1. Google Shopping
  2. NexTag
  3. PriceGrabber
  4. Shopping.com
  5. Shopzilla
  6. Become
  7. Bing Shopping Campaigns
  8. Pronto
  9. BizRate
  10. Amazon Product Ads

1. Google Shopping

Google Shopping

Google Shopping is probably the largest and best known comparison shopping engine. Products submitted to Google Shopping will also be displayed on standard Google search results and are integrated with Google's pay-per-click platform, Adwords.

2. Nextag


Nextag has been in operation since 1999 and has millions of visitors each month. Nextag was consistently a top performer for traffic and conversions in CPC Strategy's formerly published reviews of leading CSE's. You can list products, event tickets, real estate, and even travel bookings.

3. PriceGrabber


In addition to presenting products on its site, PriceGrabber has a market research tool, Market Report, that allows retailers to track consumer purchase and product pricing trends. When you list your products on PriceGrabber, you'll also be listed on Yahoo Shopping which is a nice added bonus.

4. Shopping.com


Shopping.com is part of eBay's family of companies and is another great channel for merchants to put their products in front of prospective buyers. Shopping.com also partners with The Find, another CSE on this list.

5. Shopzilla


With millions of monthly visitors and a pedigree dating back to 1996, Shopzilla is one of the best choices for ecommerce merchants looking for some extra sales. This comparison shopping engine also has tens of millions of products listed, so the selection is wide but competition might be tough.

6. Become


Become is another leader in the CSE space, allowing thrifty shoppers to compare prices, read or write product reviews, and simply search for the best possible online shopping deals.

7. Bing Shopping Campaigns

Bing Shopping Campaigns


8. Pronto


With tens of millions of product listings sorted into various retail verticals and millions of visitors monthly, Pronto certainly merits consideration for any retailer's CSE campaigns.

9. BizRate


In addition to showing product and price comparisons, BizRate allows customers to set price alerts for products they’re interested in.

10. Amazon Product Ads

Amazon isn't technically a comparison shopping engine, but they work in a similar fashion. When you register for Product Ads you can upload your products manually or via FTP. Amazon will then create ads for your products using the information provided in your product file. When you set your budget, your ads will go live and you'll pay-per-click.

Learn More: How to Sell Your Products on Amazon

The cost of comparison shopping engines

Most CSE’s are going to charge you per click-through or per action. With pay-per-click, sellers pay a set fee or bid each time that a potential customer clicks on that merchant's link.

In a pay-per-action model, retailers will pay a percentage of the value of a sale made as a result of being listed on the CSE. No one pricing model is a fit for all businesses, so choose which works best for you.

Getting products listed on price comparison websites

Most CSE's require retailers to submit a formatted product feed. This feed must meet a CSE-defined specification and should be updated frequently. The CSE uses scripts to parse and ingest the data from the feed, displaying the included information on results pages as appropriate.

Shopify merchants have several apps available that make submitting product feeds to CSE's easier and in some cases, automatic. Regardless of how a feed is created, smart merchants will work to optimize descriptions and prices to get the most sales possible.
