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Comparison Shopping

Wal-Mart Lawyers Tackle Black Friday Ad Sites, Target Search Engines

Last week, some Black Friday websites received “leaked” Wal-Mart ads regarding deals available at the big-box. But less than two weeks before the shopper’s holiday, Wal-Mart’s legal team has sent takedown notices to those sites, writes MarketingVox.

Moreover, Wal-Mart is apparently also targeting search engines that linked to the content. Lawyers told SearchAllDeals.com, a search...
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BeatMyPrice Brings Lowest ‘Net Rates to Reticent Shoppers

Stateless Systems, the developers of online coupon site RetailMeNot, launched BeatMyPrice.com, MarketingVOX reports.

The premise is simple: users enter the item they want to buy, the URL where they saw the item for sale, and the price to beat. An adjusting slider enables them to narrow results by preferred price point.

By entering a URL and price point, users do two things: seek a comparatively...
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Sales via Comparison Sites Increase as Consumers Hunt for Deals

Online retailers are increasingly benefiting from marketing their products on shopping-comparison sites as cash-strapped consumers seek bargains online, according to research published by E-consultancy and DoubleClick.

Some 43% of retailers surveyed say the proportion of online sales coming through comparison shopping engines (CSEs) has increased in the last 12 months. On average, retailers...
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Retail Website Traffic Down for Eighth Consecutive Week

US visits to online retail websites have declined for the eighth consecutive week: For the week ended Oct. 25 visits to a custom category of 500 retail websites declined 3% from a year earlier, according to data from Hitwise, an Experian company.

The Hitwise Retail 500 Index accounted for 2.92% of all US web visits for the week ended Oct. 25, 2008. In 2007, that figure was 3%. The Index excludes...
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Microsoft Buys European Comparison Shopping Site

To make its Live Search better for consumers seeking deals on retail items, Microsoft will integrate the offerings on Ciao, a European comparison-shopping site, via acquisition of Ciao’s owner, Greenfield Online, reports Internet Retailer.

The purchase price was set at $486 million in cash, or $17.50 per share.

Ciao, a US version of which was launched earlier this year, offers consumer reviews...
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Consumers Cut Spending as Inflation, Housing Concerns Intensify

Consumers in all income segments are cutting back spending, and doing so to a greater extent recently than at the beginning of the second quarter, according to a comScore study examining changes in consumer attitudes and perceptions about the US economy.

Spending cutbacks are being reported by a greater percentage of people in the lower income brackets: In July, 86% of those with household...
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Top Reasons Consumers Abandon Online Purchases

Unexpectedly high shipping fees are the number-one reason consumers abandon online purchases, according to a survey conducted earlier this year by PayPal and comScore.

Checkout abandonment is a significant challenge for online merchants, with an estimated two out of every three consumers failing to buy items they put in their shopping carts.

Online comparison-shopping is also a common reason...
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Amazon Discontinues Price Protection

Amazon has dropped its Post-Order Price Guarantee, the policy that allowed shoppers to request reimbursement for the price difference on an item sold on Amazon.com if they found a lower price for that item within one month of the original purchase.

Shopping forums are buzzing with discussions about the ending of the policy, which gave consumers confidence that they could get the best price on an...
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Retailers Busting out Extreme Back-to-School Discounts

To encourage shoppers to buy more back-to-school items, retailers often implement “loss leader” strategies: that is, selling items at a loss or even giving them away in hopes that the reductions will attract shoppers who will then buy other, more profitable items.

This year, the discounts are earlier, deeper, and more creative than in previous seasons, writes the New York Times.

Fifty cents...
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Brand-Consideration Factors Different from Purchase Decision’s

Consumers are motivated by very different factors when it comes to their “consideration” of brand in different categories, writes NPD VP of Retail Insights Dee Warmath in Ad Age.

Though pricing, convenience, service, and other typical factors may ultimately drive a purchase, consumers decide what they require from a brand to add it to their automatic-choice set.

In other words, a retailer must...
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