June 22, 2005

Study: Searchers Operating with Blunt Instruments

51% of online adults use search engines for shopping (internetretailer.com)

"Of 1,047 adults using search engines for shopping, 80% use it to compare prices, the study found."

Yikes. I hope this does not mean what I think it means.

(Search, Click, Back, Click, Back, Click, Back...)

If people are routinely using general search engines to compare prices on popular products, they risk missing out in two ways: wasting time and missing out.

For example, go to a price-comparison powerhouse like Shopzilla and you will find 113 offers for the Canon a95.

Q: An ambitious shopper could compare all of these offers the hard way, one at a time, but who has that much time?
A: Nobody.

Q: So by comparing only a fraction of the available offers, what are the odds a "manual shopper" will find the highest rated merchants and the lowest total price? (price + tax + shipping)
A: Unlikely.

Crikey, there is so much upside to comparison shopping that I can hardly sleep at night...

Study: Searchers Operating with Blunt Instruments
Posted by Sean O'Rourke on June 22, 2005 at 5:23 PM
Archived at Price Comparison