Shoparize on CSS, LLM Disruption, and the Power 100

Shoparize is a global CSS (Comparison Shopping Service) publisher, running Google Shopping and Bing Shopping campaigns on an CPA basis (cost per acquisition) to help merchants claw back buying power in the Google Shopping auction after years of paying more and more per click.  

Alongside its price comparison website, the business is live in 21 European countries, expanding to 36 by the end of the year, and now opening up in the US. 

We caught up with Joep van den Boer, Shoparize’s Chief Commercial Officer, at Awin’s ThinkTank Americas in Chicago to talk about the company’s origin story, how it's using Awin's Mastertag, and why brands need an LLM strategy to avoid losing traffic twice over. 

View Joep’s full interview above, or check the write-up below. 

Congratulations on making the Power 100! Could you describe what Shoparize is? 

We're a global CSS publisher, which means we run Google Shopping and Bing Shopping campaigns on a CPA basis. That helps merchants who've seen significant CPC increases year on year for the last couple of years take back some buying power in the Google Shopping auction. 

Alongside those two parts of our core business, we also run a price comparison website. All of this is live in 21 European countries at the moment, which we'll extend to 36 countries later this year. On the side, we're also opening up in the US, hence us being here in Chicago! 

How did it start? What were the first steps? 

Every founder has this polished, finished version of the story, but how they actually start a company is always a little different from what you'd expect. 

We started in 2013. Our founders launched a price comparison website with probably the most Dutch name you'll ever hear, it was called Kiesproduct. It might not have travelled so well in other markets… 

Then in 2017, there was a big court ruling from the European Commission against Google, effectively breaking its monopoly over Google Shopping and price comparison.  

The first thing we did was rebrand, because we knew we'd be going international. We were actually one of the first companies to jump on that Google Shopping opportunity.  

From that moment, the business transformed into more of a performance-based Google Shopping and Bing Shopping company. We still run the price comparison website, but the majority of our revenue now comes through the shopping channels. 

You go onto Awin's Mastertag fairly recently. How are you using it at Shoparize? 

We actually have two Mastertag integrations at the moment. One is for a brand-new product we'll probably be announcing soon. The main one, though, is for CSS. 

The best way to explain it: we can see which potential buyers have buying intent by looking at our data; how many product pages someone visits, whether they visit the basket or not. If we get that data back, we can serve the right products to the right user at the right moment, which drives a significant increase in conversion rates.

That's the main reason we adopted the Awin Mastertag, and we're excited to get it fully live and see the first results together. 

On intent and product discovery, are those consideration windows getting longer, maybe due to economic pressure? 

It really depends on the industry. There are some very short sales cycles. If you want your coffee delivered tomorrow, you're on Google Shopping, you spot the lowest price, you buy immediately. 

On the other hand, if you're buying luxury products, luxury fashion, luxury beauty, sales cycles get longer. People are waiting for the right price, the right discount, the right delivery window. So you definitely see more touchpoints in that journey than ever before. 

The other big shift is LLMs changing the customer journey. In the traditional affiliate marketing mix, a lot of content publishers have lost significant traffic. It's something I keep hearing from people here in the US, that their top publishers used to be content publishers, but LLMs have really changed that. A lot of those publishers have lost traffic to direct-to-web shops. 

That means those web shops need to get creative about showing up in LLMs, or they lose twice: they lose the affiliate traffic from publishers, and they don't show up in the LLMs either. That's why it's so important to have a full strategy that includes Google Shopping and Bing Shopping, otherwise you risk missing out completely. 

You've touched on a few trends there: LLMs, product discovery. What's the single biggest thing you're talking about in the office right now? 

I'll be predictable and say AI. It's the recurring topic, and everyone's using the term in a completely different way. I don't agree with all of them, because it's almost becoming an excuse for people not to perform anymore. 

But what I took away from Awin's ThinkTank, talking to merchants, is the unpredictability of LLMs. People are seeing a lot of their affiliate traffic disappear and finding it really hard to generate that traffic back through LLMs.  

One piece of advice I'd give brands right now is to talk to content creators: what you really want is people with a network of others who trust them. If you can generate traffic to your site through that kind of trust, people are far more likely to buy than through other, more manufactured routes. 

Interested in charging up your mid-funnel? Strike up a partnership with Shoparize, or browse the Power 100 for CSS partners, content creators, and more.