Price comparison website development: this way you can do it
Introduction
With the plethora of options open before shoppers, it is imperative to deliver the best deals to everyone, especially to bring in new customers, and to ensure that your existing customers remain loyal to you. It is the nature of practically every shopper to compare prices before they buy a product. Wouldn’t you do that? For example, if you are buying a pair of shoes, you would want to compare the prices on all the major online platforms to know what the prices are, right? People have become too dependent on comparing the prices just to make sure they are getting a good deal. Even if you prefer, or plan to shop only on Amazon, you would be able to scroll down on their website and compare the prices of different products (from different retailers) with the same features as the product you are trying to purchase. It would give you all that you need within a matter of seconds – the price, the product features, the seller name, and so on. The price comparison feature makes it possible for you to compare the prices within a matter of seconds.
How do price comparison sites work?
A lot of effort and planning goes into developing price comparison websites. For one, it acts as a search engine because when you click on the button “Compare prices”, the search engine will search the entire internet for information and beautifully present them. The shopper will be able to see the product information and their prices from all the major online retailers, so you can expect the website to work as per the following:
Data collection – Think of a person scanning the entire website for all the online retailers that sell the product the shopper is searching for. The price comparison engines use APIs and web scraping to collect all the information or data to present before the shoppers. Of course, this data will be analyzed to check whether it is a match with the products that the shoppers are seeking a comparison for. This ensures accuracy and relevance in the presented data.
Indexing and Matching – Rather than tabulating all the data that the search engine collects, it is important that the collected data is indexed and organized according to product type, brand name, other features, and attributes.
User-friendly interface – The price comparison websites should have a user-friendly interface to help shoppers search for products. It should also allow them to filter their search based on retailer, price range, and other attributes. It should allow the user to quickly find what they are looking for.
Price comparison – Once the user gets a list of all the similar-attributed products, he/she can compare the prices of the products, shipping costs, etc. They would also see the critical reviews of the products.
Click to visit – When the user finds a product/retailer that they would like to visit to decide whether to buy or not, they will click on the link, and it will immediately take them there. If the user/shopper purchases from that, then the price comparison website earns a commission.
This is how the price comparison websites earn profit – through sponsored ads, affiliate marketing, pay-per-click advertising, etc.
This is why these have to be built attractively and with intelligent navigation for them to be appealing to the shopper. So, when you are developing a website, these are the main features that you have to add to it.
Pointers to remember as you go into price comparison website development
So, planning to have your price comparison website? These pointers would help you on the right path.
Get a clear grip on the market
Research on what kind of market you want to focus on. Understand your target audience, and their preferences to avoid conflict of interest later on. When you do market research, it will help you understand what your price comparison website should include.
Choose a niche
It would be nice to start by focusing on a particular niche, and then move on to other product categories. This would help you establish a strong presence, and there will be a dedicated user base. Slowly, you can add other product niches and give more value-added services to your customers. Consider the consumer demand, competition level, and profitability while selecting the first niche, and then moving on from there.
Data Acquisition
Data is the oil by which the entire machinery of your website runs. Data acquisition is done through several methods including web scraping, API integration, and partnerships with data providers. This would let you have comprehensive datasets that are customized to the requirements of your website.
The job begins
Once you have collected all the data, and decide the niche that you are trying to build first, you can start looking for a reputed software development company to get things rolling for you. They will develop the perfect website for you, with features like search functionality, which is, of course, the heart and soul of your price comparison website. They will develop robust price comparison algorithms to add features like product price, taxes, discounts, shipping costs, and promotional offers to provide competitive results to the users.
Some additional features you can add to the website
Remember to add these special features to the website so you can make them attractive and more useful to the shopper.
Reviews & ratings – Product reviews and ratings play an important role in decision-making, and people tend to read more on 1-star ratings rather than 5-star ratings (5 being the highest rating). With AI, it is not easy for customers to check on the critical ratings and decide whether they want to buy.
Deals and offers – This should be one of the first included features on the website. People buy when there are deals and promotions, and when there is a price drop on a product they are trying to purchase, they would certainly consider buying it.
Integrating with coupon websites – Sellers often have cashback and coupon options to attract buyers and to bring people who have abandoned their carts. You might want to integrate your website with cashback and coupon websites.
Price history charts – This is a tool that would display a product’s lowest price in the form of an interactive graphical chart. The purpose is to help the shopper find the best price range to buy the product. They would be able to understand the price rise over some time, and what the prices could be in the future.
Conclusion
Now that you have collected all the relevant data, it is time to develop the price comparison website. The software development company that you hire would be able to help with the right platform and framework selection. Consider features like ease of maintenance, scalability, and flexibility when you build the website. The most popular choices for price comparison websites are WordPress and Shopify, and of course, it is possible to have other custom-built solutions too. The developers would create a user-friendly interface with features integrated into them like robust search functionality, intuitive navigation, and responsive design so your users will have a seamless browsing experience across devices.
Interesting Links:
Step-by-Step Instructions to Create a Price Comparison Site
What is the Purpose of a Price Comparison Site?
Pictures: Canva
The author: Sascha Thattil works at Software-Developer-India.com which is a part of the YUHIRO Group. YUHIRO is a German-Indian enterprise which provides programmers to IT companies, agencies and IT departments.
