Difference between Pricegrabber.com and Shopping.com
Shopping search engines are relatively new innovations on the Internet, although they are fast becoming essential tools for the savvy online shopper and marketer. Serving both as research tools and portals for more efficient and convenient online shopping, more and more people are looking into the many benefits that services such as Pricegrabber.com and Shopping.com have to offer for consumers as well as for retailers. Let's take a look at some of the more significant differences and similarities of both.
Fees And CPC Rates
Pricegrabber comes up out swinging–and falls flat on its face–with an astounding initial deposit of $150. Whether this is worth it or not will remain to be seen, but the $25 fee of Shopping.com is definitely much more affordable. Both services get points off for increase all click prices by 20% however; although to be fair, this has been done all across the industry as well. PriceGrabber offers CPC rates of as low as 15 cents for auto parts and up to 80 cents for jewelry. Shopping.com for its part charges CPC rates ranging from 5 cents for sporting and outdoor goods to $1.00 for some electronics.
Services
Shopping.com sets itself apart from the competition with a remarkably easy-to-navigate user interface that should be a model for how websites of this nature conduct their business. Not that Pricegrabber’s website is bad mind you, its just that Shopping.com’s is so much better. We did have mixed feelings about Pricegrabber’s policy of assigning an individual account manager whether necessary or not. While there may be instances wherein one would be helpful, this isn't always the case, and the tendency to be pushy is something that definitely turned us off. In addition, Pricegrabber requires far too many steps in the way of updating and reloading product feeds, again whether it is needed or not (and in most cases, it isn't).
Policies
One thing we–and many users as it turns out–found particularly annoying about Shopping.com is their neglect in informing customers about increases in minimum click thru rates. This should be an expected part of the service, and the fact that Shopping.com doesn't provide this makes their policies just a bit suspicious. Pricegrabber for its part does not allow you to see your current balance and limits feedback only to your past deposits. Again this is an annoying policy that we would rather do without. In addition, Pricegrabber will not refund your deposit, which is another annoyance not worth the relatively low conversion rate. Shopping.com will at least refund if your deposit, but it unfortunately also gets you a similarly low conversion rate.
Summary
Pricegrabber.com
- Costly initial deposit of $150
- All click prices have been increased by 20%
- Provides an individual account manager; may or may not always be helpful or necessary
- Can be quite pushy
- No refunds offered
Shopping.com
- Much lower initial deposit of only $25
- Click prices have also increased 20%
- Owned by eBay
- 20 million unique visitors claimed every month.
- CPC rates range from $.05 to $1.00
- Excellent GUI
- Does not send information about increases in minimum click thru rates
- Offers a refund upon closure of account
