Pricegrabber vs Shopping.com

[Decius]

I have recently been trying to gain a lot of exposure for a garment website I am marketing. I have explored a bunch of the possible marketing solutions including Google Adwords, MS adCenter, Overture, Shopping.com and Pricegrabber.

Adwords and adCenter don't really convert very well. I found the Overture interface to be horrendous and their billing system is absolutely ridiculous. However, once I requested a refund from them they provided it reasonably promptly.

Shopping.com was sort of glitchy but I think it was because I signed up right when they were making some changes. Overall the conversion from them has been better than Adwords. Also, Amazon uses them. Their minimum CPC rates are reasonable ($.15/click for apparel).

THEN, I tried pricegrabber, specifically because they are used on MSN. Been very unhappy thus far.

Regardless, I'd like to hear if anyone has any other experiences with pricegrabber.

[edited by: Decius at 8:23 pm (utc) on Oct. 25, 2006]

[CernyM]

We're in the apparel space, and we've been unhappy with pricegrabber.

Shopzilla and Shopping.com are better bets. However, it takes some tuning to get things properly categorized and showing up for user searches as you would expect.

None of the comparison shopping engines really understand apparel very well though. Amazon.com's sellercentral does a better job overall and is on a drop ship basis rather than a pay per click. Our sales via sellercentral have gone from "yay, a little free money" to "we really look forward to the twice monthly Amazon.com deposits to our checking account."

Our experience has been that the conversions through shopping comparison engines are better through those than through adwords, but that the traffic is much, much lower.

[ispy]

We had a tons of traffic from Bizrate, a good amount from Shopping.com, but alomost zilch with Pricegrabber, but there were just no conversions. They all had identical data feeds. It's what I call cheap traffic. I think it has to do with the way it's set up, with the pictures, then the buy now links, visit site links, etc. all on the same listing with each seperate link and click registering as a billed click. We finally just pulled everything off feeling that something waws wrong somewhere we just could not really find out what it was. Sales actually went up. Pricegrabber does not do any refunds once you pay there minimum $250.00 each time, so it can take quite awhile to run it down.

[Decius]

My experiences with pricegrabber have been horrible. Now I'm stuck with the massive initial deposit ($150 vs $25 with shopping.com).

Shopping.com has converted about 4 times better than Adwords. Adwords is horrible, but the GUI is terrific.

Pricegrabber is so anti-intuitive it's baffling. I demanded a refund and they refused even after it was obvious they had delayed my account initiation.

Additionally, they increase ALL their click prices by 20% starting in november. Ridiculous!

And a minimum $250 deposit?

These guys are basically running the last leg of their operation. No one can possibly sustain a business in a competitive arena with these kinds of tricks. It's obvious they are trying to get as much money as they can out of people, most likely because people will pay because they source MSN Shopping.

Once MS drops them, they will disappear.

[CernyM]

Additionally, they increase ALL their click prices by 20% starting in november. Ridiculous!

I believe all of them are doing this, not just Pricegrabber.

But, yeah, Pricegrabber has been weak. Basically just $250 down the rathole.

[Decius]

Shopping.com has no notices about any increases in minimum click thrus.

Pricegrabber: Also not able to see current balance... only previous deposits. This is in an effort to keep you from knowing when your money will run out. Another distasteful tactic.

[edited by: Decius at 10:07 pm (utc) on Oct. 27, 2006]

[ispy]

They assign you an individual account manager at Pricegrabber. They keep calling like some sort of telemarketer even when there is no issue. I guess it can come off to some as good customer relations, but to others it's just pushy salesmanship. I felt that it was pushy salesmanship. You have to update your product feed every week or so, they keep sending emails and you have to reload it via ftp EVEN WHEN THERE ARE NO CHANGES, or your listing gets deactivated. You don't have to do this with the other comparison shopping sites.