A recent report published by E-consultancy and sponsored by DoubleClick revealed some interesting research on internet retailers’ use of comparison shopping engines (CSEs). Most of the internet retailers surveyed were based in the UK but the results offer some key insights for other retailers looking to add CSEs to their marketing mix.
Here are some of the highlights of the report:
43% of online retailers reported an increase in sales through CSEs over the last year.
Merchants reported that 10% of their online marketing budget is spent on CSEs while agencies reported 14% of their clients’ budget going to CSEs. CSEs generated 10% and 16% in sales respectively as a proportion of total online sales.
27% of online retailers are using six or more Comparison shopping engines.
Some 21% of retailers surveyed are not currently using any comparison engines to advertise their products on, while a further 16% use just one CSE.
Google Shopping / Google Base is the most commonly used comparison engine, utilized by 63% of surveyed retailers. It was also rated best for quality of traffic and ease of use among retailers surveyed.
The majority of retailers (59%) are not using online marketplaces like eBay or Amazon to sell their products.
Kaboodle, Jellyfish, and Twenga; are seen as the emerging social shopping sites to look at in the future but have yet to emerge as making up a significant part of online retailers’ sales and marketing strategy.
Kelkoo/Yahoo! Shopping is used by half of the retailers surveyed in the study, while PriceRunner, Shopzilla, and Shopping.com were used by 30% of internet retailers surveyed.
56% preferred a CPA model while 17% preferred a CPC model. The latter is the most widely used by comparison shopping engines.
The main barriers cited by online merchants and agencies alike include:
Managing feeds and keeping data up-to-date on multiple sites.
Tracking activity and understanding the true return of investment.
De-duplicating the reporting of conversions from CSEs alongside other digital channels.
Most used metrics to measure conversions and success using CSEs:
Almost two-thirds (64%) of companies surveyed use completed sales to measure return on investment. The next most commonly used metrics are revenue per transaction (56%), clicks (43%), site visits (40%) and
return on sales (40%), while only 17% used customer lifetime value as a metric.
Click to view the full report and findings of the E-consultancy report
