What is comparison shopping?
- Written by Emma Sharp on
While consumer habits have changed in recent years to value things like authenticity and ethical sourcing, price is always a factor in any purchasing decision.
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While consumer habits have changed in recent years to value things like authenticity and ethical sourcing, price is always a factor in any purchasing decision.
Hundreds of factors lead to a successful purchase, but even with the best marketing, product, or service on your side, a competitor can easily claim a sale at the final hurdle. While consumer habits have changed in recent years to value things like authenticity and ethical sourcing, price is always a fundamental factor in any purchasing decision. That’s why comparison shopping is such a powerful tool.
Comparison shopping is when consumers compare the price of products or services between different providers and retailers before making a purchase. This enables customers to shop around for what they perceive to be the best deal.
It’s not always about price, though. There are other ways to add value to a purchase like free shipping, a loyalty program or simply positioning yourself as a credible and trustworthy supplier. These factors can be garnered through comparison, arming your potential customer with the knowledge they need to get the best value for their money.
In short, the power of comparison can make or break a sale for your brand, and even loyal customers might be tempted to shop elsewhere if you don’t stay competitive. Today, the power of comparison comes with an important caveat — it has to deliver on the extra effort customers exert. In times of financial difficulty, customers are proving that it’s easier to stick with what they know and won’t stray to a new provider or retailer if the difference in value doesn’t seem worth it. So keeping an eye on your competitors is important for nurturing current customer relationships.
In the digital age, comparison shopping has proven to be more important than ever. Comparisons in price are often shown as soon as a user types a product name into a search engine and once the algorithm knows what they’re after, they are exposed to enticing deals in ads in their email inbox, on affiliate sites, on social media etc.
In fact, the role of Google in comparison shopping and advertising, or rather, the news that surrounded it, perfectly exemplifies how important it is. The internet is a shopping mall, the front page of Google is where customer’s window-shop and it’s why so many brands aim to rank highly (over 90% of clicks happen on page one, after all).
The ease with which a customer is exposed to these opportunities has also made it something of an expectation for shoppers — they expect a search to bring them reliable, good-value results. With every search term, Google and comparison shopping services are there to tell customers what they could buy and from whom they should buy it. Placing your brand into these ranks is vital for brand awareness, as well as securing a sale.
Comparison advertising is similar to comparison shopping in that they both aim to drive the customer towards the best deal. Comparison shopping is the act of a customer knowingly seeking out information for different retailers in order to come to a decision. Comparison advertising is what awaits a user when they hit enter on that search term and helps them make their choice as tailored ads follow them around the internet.
Comparison advertising can be capitalized on in several ways. One of the most common ways is through affiliate marketing with publishers that build content around popular items for comparison, for example, blog articles. These often follow heading styles such as listicles for the “top 10 PCs” or direct comparisons like “Designer mascara vs. drug store.” This sort of content is great for potential buyers, even for those who don’t plan to make a purchase immediately as they can remain as a go-to resource for information (and affiliate links) when they do decide to buy. Flank these articles with appropriate brand advertising and they bring valuable information and a natural next click to potential shoppers.
These pages also have value in and of themselves, provided they are written well, as better engagement will push the page up the Google ranks and that means more exposure for the brands mentioned therein.
Another key method of comparison advertising is through comparison shopping services. CSS works to gather information from websites about products and services and then shares it with users. This is how Google Shopping works; when you input a search term, Google fetches information from suitable retailers and displays the shopping results to you at the top of the page. However, Google Shopping is not the only service that does this and, since the misuse of the first page outlined above, competitors now have equal standing when it comes to displaying their results.
What this means for brands is that there are prime affiliate opportunities in CSS to make it to that all-important first page. Awin works with a range of CSS partners able to support brand promotion through the Google Shopping platform. These include NMPi, RedBrain, Kelkoo, Dooshop, Pro-position, Shopforward, Lyst and Kiesproduct, all able to help brands rank better for search terms and optimize product feeds.
While directly speaking ill of competition isn’t advised — and not what customers expect when it comes to professionalism from their chosen brands — general, informed comparisons between your own products and services is a way to share valuable insight.
You’ll no doubt have seen this displayed in comparison tables such as for subscription services or for phone manufacturers that offer multiple models with varying specs. This sort of content is something the brand is best placed to create or provide as they have in-depth knowledge of the product. They are also able to generate hands-on content for entire product ranges that, save for sending influencers whole collections, most customers can’t replicate. The importance of this is demonstrated in the beauty community where swatch videos provided by the brand show products as they perform on the skin. Following the pandemic in particular, this is insight customers can’t gain even in store from samples.
This approach can be perfectly adopted by brands online through product feeds. With Awin, you can upload product feeds to our platform and ensure they are updated regularly, so affiliates can easily create comparison tables while also allowing your feeds to appear in Google Shopping should you work with relevant affiliate partners through your program.
Word of mouth still holds significant weight in the internet age, or perhaps more aptly, word of type. While recommendations from friends and neighbors still count, cumulatively positive feedback from online reviews can really sway customer opinion. This means comparison shopping is important at every stage of your brand’s offering. Is your product high quality enough to earn a 5-star review? Is the price point enticing enough for people to not opt for a 3-star alternative? Is shipping free and therefore supportive of your affordable price point? Does the customer service that follows reward the customer for choosing you out of the options out there? All these factors influence a customer to write a good review, or even bother to leave one at all.
Reviews are a core tenant of affiliate marketing, as well. Whether endorsed by an Instagram influencer, added as a link to a popular blog post or rewarded in return for a free item like the Amazon Vine program, human opinion remains as important as ever. If you choose to reach out to publishers for an advertising collaboration with this goal in mind, then remember that not all reviews are equal. High-quality, well-written reviews are the ones that will really hold weight with potential buyers.
There are several best practices you should follow when requesting a review or writing one yourself. Failing to shape a review around these basic principles can result in something that isn’t all that valuable to your brand or to would-be shoppers.
Awin’s platform connects advertisers and affiliates alike to create comparison shopping content that helps sell your products or services. Whether it’s collaborating with big-name sites or getting extra power behind your search rank with CSS, Awin can help create connections that help your brand win in any customer comparison.
Get started today with our partners.
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