With consumers always out on the look for the best deals, discounts and packages, price comparison apps have become central to significant purchase decisions. With price comparison apps driving informed purchase decisions, a whole new category of customers in the world of online shopping has been created. With 2 billion people expected to purchase goods and services online last year, this is a massive market to tap into. Comparison engines have become the norm for the informed shopper, with platforms such as Google Shopping, Bizrate, Nextag and others becoming significant players in the price comparison game.
Expansion of the price comparison market
The price comparison market is currently booming and continues to expand in many ways by providing unique services. There is an extensive typology of such apps:
- Barcode apps such as PriceJump, allows bar codes to be scanned in order to provide price comparisons with nearby stores on different products.
- Smart alert apps such as ShopSavvy provide instant notifications as soon as selected items go on sale. RetailMeNot, considered a market leader in price comparison tools, allows “location-aware” technology to be used to provide alerts on deals.
- Deal aggregator apps such as 8Coupons and Yipit allow mobile couponing and a variety of other options, ensuring that consumers can continuously scour and search for the best deals and discounts.
Advantages of price comparison tools
With the online world bombarding the consumer with options and choices aplenty, price comparison apps and sites become valuable research tools for anyone with an internet connection looking to make significant purchase decisions. Here are some of the most significant advantages of price comparison tools:
- Savings galore: By pointing consumers in the direction of the highest value, price comparison tools allow for massive savings. In such cases, access to smaller companies offering the same products or services provides much more viable choices to the consumer through these tools. These savings mean that the consumer always keeps coming back to the same price comparison apps for all kinds of purchase decisions.
- Time is of the essence: By saving vast amounts of time and hassle for all consumers, price comparison tools allow them to browse through hundreds of offers by different companies, all just a click away, from the convenience of their mobile screens. This unparalleled level of accessibility has significantly contributed to the tremendous success of price comparison apps over the years.
- Competition is created: With such a wide variety of options, service providers such as airlines and hotels need to continue providing the best deals. By continuously keeping up with market-competitive rates and charges, all this ends up benefitting the customer, as they are treated to endless options at incredibly reasonable prices.
- Customer service improved: Within a cutthroat market providing all kinds of facilities at nominal prices, companies use customer service as an effective strategy to create brand loyalty. This ensures that even such well-informed consumer decisions are in their favour. Customer service is especially helpful for smaller businesses by providing a critical distinguishing factor from more prominent and more well-established players.
- Customer is still king: Despite all the advancements and massive changes in the fields of business and commerce, this basic principle remains essential. Price comparison apps ensure that the customer remains the critical decision-maker and that all firms and companies concentrate their strategies and approaches around the consumer.
Conclusion
With online traffic continuing to grow and consumers becoming much savvier, price comparison will only continue to develop and expand more. Price comparison has already been adopted for hotels, flights, rent-a-car services and many more areas of business. This also provides firms with the opportunity to continue innovating and pushing their boundaries while studying consumer behaviour and consumer preferences much more closely while adapting accordingly.
