COMPARISON SHOPPING -- INTERNET STYLE
Most of you who check out the articles on
this site will have heard of comparison
shopping -- checking out different stores
for the best price on an item. Just makes
cents, right? :)
Finding the best price by checking out a
lot of stores does take time. Even if it's
only leafing through the Sunday grocery
circulars, it takes time.
It isn't just for groceries anymore...
... although you can find those weekend
circulars online at sundaysaver.com
and, like most things on the internet,
they don't cost anything to use! Just
search for the item you want, and it spits
out a list of merchants, usually ordered
by price!
Like everything else that's free on the
internet, this begs the question: Why are
they giving you this service free? How do
they make their money if you're not paying
them to use their service? What's the
catch?
The reason I pose these questions is that
some of the comparison sites out there will
list "sponsored" merchants ahead of
non-sponsored or "free" merchants. What
this means for you is that the first
merchants you see may not be the ones with
the best price, but instead the ones who
paid the most to get listed first! A site
that gives unbiased results from the start
is ideal, but in a lot of cases the unbiased
results are available even if they're not on
the first screen.
Or, if the site makes its money through
click-through commissions they may show
links that earn them something before
they show links that don't.
Others organize by price right from the
start, and tell you outright that their
only source of income is click-through
commissions! Addall.com,
a site for comparing prices on books, is one such site.
It's lightning-fast and ad-free! Sites like these are the cream of the crop.
Comparison sites are a tool
By this I mean that the search results from
a comparison site are pieces of information
that you use to make a decision. They do
not necessarily have to make your decision
for you to purchase the item -- though they
will certainly TRY with a "buy now" link
right next to the search result!
So, what are the best ways to use these
tools to YOUR best advantage?
- Look for clues to see whether the
results are unbiased or not. Words
like "sponsored result" or "affiliate
links" may indicate that you need to
dig deeper to get all the results. A
"Show all results" link may indicate
that they're holding back all but the
sponsored merchants.
- Is shipping included in the price of
the item? (Listing the price separately
is ideal.) Or are the results posted
just the prices of the items?
- This also implies that you do a sanity
check to see if the price offered is
accurate. Almost no comparison site
will guarantee that its results are
100% accurate. At the very least,
don't be surprised if the price is
different once you go to buy the item.
- Check out more than one comparison site.
One site may include some merchants but
not others.
- Does the site tell you the name of
the merchant with the lowest price?
Can you go to a click-through rebate site
and get an extra rebate on that price?
- If you do reach the lowest price through
one of these comparison sites
(especially if it depends on click-through
commissions itself!) then please
click through that site to buy the item.
This will help to keep the site up and
running for everyone to use!
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