For consumers, the benefits of comparison shopping engines are clear: you can find the product you’re looking for at the most competitive price available online. But the benefits of CSEs for online retailers are not so clear-cut. Regardless, CSEs hold a world of potential for your online business.
One of the biggest benefits to your online store is the search engine impact. This occurs on two fronts. Firstly, CSEs are search engines in their own right that may open your store up to a whole new swath of unique users. Secondly, listings in CSEs help boost your juice in search engines like Google.
Some CSEs are free to list; others utilize CPC functionality, meaning you pay a small fee every time someone clicks on one of your products listed in the engine. Both types of CSE sites are beneficial for your store, but if you’re worried about cost, we encourage you to get set up with the free services first.
Below you’ll find a few of the most popular CSEs on the market.
Google Base: A familiar brand and a familiar friend to your store, Google has a toehold in the comparison shopping game and offers the service for free.
Shopzilla: With no setup fees, Shopzilla utilizes the pay-per-click model and helps expose your store a brand new audience of shoppers.
NexTag: The number one paid comparison shopping engine in traffic, revenue and gross merchandise volume, NexTag is a necessity for all types of online stores.
Shopping.com: A part of the eBay family, this CSE also utilizes a pay-per-click model and has great traction with shoppers.
With 3dcart, you can automatically feed your products into many of the most popular CSEs, including Google Base, Yahoo! Shopping, NexTag, Bing and more. As an added bonus, this capability empowers you to measure the ROI of your CSE campaigns. Go here for more information.
