Hitwise is reporting that comparison shopping engines saw an online market share increase last week compared to the same week in 2006. Traffic to the leading comparison shopping engine traffic increased 56 percent. Search engines were the main driver of traffic to the top comparison shopping websites with Google referring 20 percent of visits and Yahoo! Search referring 14 percent for the week ending Nov. 3, 2007Yahoo! Shopping had the largest market percentage with 20 percent and their market share increasing 44 percent from the same week last year. Smarter.com and Bizrate followed with 15 and 14 percent, respectively.
- Retailers benefiting the most from downstream traffic from the top comparison shopping websites were Amazon, eBay, Target, Overstock.com, Wal-Mart, and JCPenney
- The leading product search terms driving traffic to the comparison shopping websites were laptop computers, Nintendo Wii, LCD TV, digital cameras, iPods, and Xbox360 for the four weeks ending Nov. 3, 2007.
Comparison shopping engines maybe gaining more traffic, but at what cost? The CPC rates on the shopping engines and search engines are out of control, how does anyone other the Google, Yahoo and a few more companies make any money? An 40% of online merchants will spend more on marketing then they will gain back from sales, and a good portion of those merchants will close shop before the residual sales will kick in. That is why we at PriceLeap.com introduced a flat fee marketing program, stop by and take a look.
Comment by Alex — November 13, 2007 @ 5:23 pm |
Out of control is obviously subjective. CSE’s act in an arbitrage fashion. For some merchants, this channel is quite profitable. Additionally, it serves to both brand yourself and to acquire customers. The 40% number you reference? Can you provide documentation?
A flat fee seems to fly in the face of your arguement since low traffic terms would actually cost more that high traffic terms.
Comment by surgesilk — November 20, 2007 @ 2:39 pm |