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Comparison Shopping websites in India - Helping customers make informed decisions.

Comparison sites - sometimes called shopbots - helps the customer find the best deals across products and categories

Last Updated : Feb 12 2015 | 2:45 PM IST
With a rapid increase in the number of online shops in India in the past 5 years and more nontraditional categories (insurance, property, car accessories etc) joining the revolution, the growth of comparison websites has come as a boon to a shopper who is overloaded with choices, across multiple websites.

What are Comparison sites? How do they work?

Comparison sites - sometimes called shopbots – helps the customer find the best deals across products and categories, along with giving them multiple options on one site . The sites aggregate the products that are available across all their partner shops and display millions of products on their site, in the process ensuring that the customer does not have to hunt on the net for products or deals.  Comparison sites are further divided basis their category focus, some of them are as follows:

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Electronic sites: mypriceindia.com

Fashion & Lifestyle sites:  shopalike.in, Yebhi.com

Travel sites:  skyscanner.in & kayak.co.in

Insurance sites:  policybazaar.com, myinsuranceclub.com

In addition to this, you also have comparison super stores such as Junglee.in and Mysmartprice.com who display a mix of categories ranging from electronics, books and media to fashion and lifestyle products.

The job of a comparison site is to aggregate and display products from relevant category websites and help the customer find what they need. Filter search plays a very big role for a comparison site as its important to ensure the site knows exactly what the customer is looking for. Once the customer puts in the key words in the search box, the site will activate its internal engines to select the most relevant products and selections as per the customers search. The customer can then select the products he wants on the comparison site and is then guided to the partner shop to finalize the purchase.  

How safe are comparison sites?

Shopping on comparison websites are just as safe as shopping on your favorite e-commerce site.
The primary reason for existence of comparison sites is to ensure that a customer can find and compare products that are available all over the web (their partner shops), at one place. The product that a customer sees on a comparison site, are the same products that he would find on a Flipkart or an Amazon – the comparison site does not own any of its own stock of products nor do they have warehouses or deal with any of the logistics that an online store deals with on a daily basis.

Once the customer has selected the product, he/she is automatically directed to the partner shop, who actually own the product, and from thereon, it’s the normal payment options and terms (COD, Credit / Debit, Paypal etc). The product is finally delivered to the customer by the partner shop.

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First Published: Feb 12 2015 | 11:04 AM IST

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