Compare prices online

Well can someone please tell me what exactly is the difference between

"Comparison" and "LISTING a specific product with prices from different suppliers" .

Isn't it just a different way to display the LIST or what? I don't get it...


EDIT : Ok i went to ratesdirect,jump.co.za and pricecheck to "compare" prices of "Garmin Nuvi" ..a GPS .

Ratesdirect:

1. LISTED all the Garmin Nuvi Models [uniquely] . There were about 48 results.
2. I could then pick a specific model to view detail and "compare"
3. On the "drill down" page i could see for the selected model all the suppliers/retailers and their prices for the specific model.

Jump.co.za:

1. LISTED all the Garmin Nuvis in their entire database in one gigantic list. There were like 300 results.
2. If there's 10 suppliers of a specific model, you would see 10 entries and you have to toy with the sorting to get these 10 to show up "near" each other.
3. You are forced to "refine" your search to LIST a specific model.

PriceCheck

1. LISTED all the Garmin Nuvi Models [uniquely per model/title, same as ratesdirect]. There were a whopping 850 results.
2. Somehow the list was still too long and i "refined" my search to "Garmin Nuvi 200", now i got like 3800 results. Oops,
so i had to use some google tricks like putting things in double quotes . So finally got the results down to 35 *sigh*.
Now while this is nice and all, i'm pretty sure i filtered some useful results out in the process.
3. I did find the Garmin Nuvi 200 at least, when drilling down it shows you all the suppliers and prices.
3.1 It ALSO shows you "people who bought/viewed this product also bought/viewed this"...something i find very valuable.


So yea, as far as i'm concerned , all of them are LISTING stuff. ratesdirect and pricecheck is definitely doing it better by first doing a GROUP BY [this is a normal database thing] and then allowing me to "Drill Down" a specific model to compare.

PriceCheck obviously have a HUGE database, and definitely wins hands down in the end i'd say, but i felt it threw too much results at me. Like a Pink Nuvi 200 and a Black Nuvi 200 is listed seperately...i'm sure there's some "model/code" to group them ? How many people start off with "oh i want a pink garmin nuvi 200 gps" ?

Pricecheck+RatesDirect is still easier to "compare" prices than Jump.co.za .

That said, i don't see it being any difficulty for Jump.co.za to do the same ...shouldn't require more than a day's worth of coding to simply GROUP BY MODEL/UNIQUE PRODUCT CODE before showing the suppliers of it.
 
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Let me try to put it all into some perspective

Like diabolus said, we are all (at a core level) doing the same thing, and when I talk about “we” I mean Jump.co.za, Pricecheck.co.za and RatesDirect shopping. We all get products from various merchants and make it searchable on a website. Our technology and the way we display data is in fact very different as pointed out.

The massive misunderstanding here is that it’s not as simple as doing a GROUP BY on a database to get the different products matched up. The reason for this is simple, not one of the merchants gives us the same product code, product name or product description. This leaves you with a database where it’s nearly impossible to do “decent” product matching with any form of algorithm or automation. This means that most of the product matching is done with a manual process, where someone in front of a pc needs to tell the database that product a is the same as product b. Shopping.com has more than 200 employees that is dedicated to product matching.

This is why a while ago we decided to delete all product matchings and start our technology from scratch, and we first got the basics right, and by basics I mean the most relevant results at the best speed. As all the sites stand today, we are by far the quickest product search engine in South Africa (and please don’t compare search times on sites that have 40 products listed).

With all this said, I still agree that products should be matched in some way for the best results for the users, and there RatesDirect Shopping and Pricecheck is a bit ahead of us. We are however working on a close to fully automated matching system that should be launched very soon, and that will again allow us to compare one apple to another apple, be it a green or a red apple.

It is sad that people take such offense when someone raises their opinion about a website, but people need to realise that competition is very healthy, but if you want to compete you need to do a decent job, or you will fall behind. We all are trying our best to give the consumers a service that they did not have 2 years ago, and we all are still learning in the process. I have no issues with criticism, but keep it constructive. I am fully aware of where we are ahead of the competition as well as where we fall behind, and that is just part of the VERY exciting quest to be the best.

I don’t want to hijack this thread, and you are welcome to start a new thread about product listings in South Africa where we can all give constructive criticism to get the best service for the consumers, because that is all that we want to achieve.
 
Comparison Shopping

All in all discussion is good, agreed and everyone is entitled to criticize.
But rather give constructive criticism so that the powers that be at these comparison sites such as rates direct shopping, pricecheck and jump can improve and rectify things.
 
How we do it

Hi All,

I think this is a great thread. Very interesting to hear some very experienced web users give their input on the shopping comparison industry.

And, yes, I agree that shopping comparison should be about comparison. We’ve made a concerted effort at PriceCheck to make this part of the core concept since we started building the site 2.5 years ago. But it’s not just about comparison – it’s about providing the most information possible to allow the user to make the most informed decision possible. That’s why we compare like for like, have shopping guides for certain products, and allow users to filter specific features in certain categories.

- Filters allow users to narrow their browsing in a specific category to find exactly what they’re looking for, e.g. If I wanted to find LCD TVs with 1920x1080 resolution, at least 36” in width that support full HD, I could filter the category (http://www.pricecheck.co.za/categories/162/LCD+TVs/) to find them here: http://www.pricecheck.co.za/categories/f/162/LCD+TVs/f~fn~f/127~126~128/1920%20x%201080~36,-~Full/0/tp.weekly/DESC/

Currently no other comparison engines in South Africa offer this functionality, and they never have.

- Guides can be found in our most popular categories and we have some in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.
e.g. English GPS buying guide: http://www.pricecheck.co.za/guides~121~GPS+Device+Buying+Guide~en/
e.g. Xhosa GPS buying guide: http://www.pricecheck.co.za/guides~121~GPS%3A++ISALATHISO+SOKUTHENGA~xh/

diabolus, regarding the Garmin Nuvi search mentioned:
We have trialled many search technologies in the past and we’ve found that the way we show results is currently the best for our users. You occasionally do get extra “noise” in the search with some irrelevant results, however, most of the time the product you’re looking for should be right near the top of the results. With the search on Garmin Nuvi, it’s easy to limit it to a specific category using the filters on the left (http://www.pricecheck.co.za/search/?search=Garmin+Nuvi&search_category_id=121) and then you should find greatly refined results. We’re constantly testing new search technologies and you might see some changes in the near future.

In terms of the pink, and non-pink issue, we generally go by manufacturers specs and if they regard them as different products, we do too.

Hope that sheds some more light on the matter.
 
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