A complete guide to comparison shopping

The era of convenience brings comfort — and competition. 

Maybe you use Amazon dropshipping to ship your office products to customers within a day or two. 

Maybe you have 12 competitors who do the same. 

But convenience can’t exist without competition. Today’s shopper is increasingly picky and frugal due to inflation. They know that if your price is too high, a competitor will happily offer less. 

So how do you compete? 

One way is through affiliate partnerships with comparison shopping sites. Amidst the popular blogger, influencer, and coupon site affiliates also lies the price comparison website. 

They’re characterized by high monthly traffic and, consequently, more expensive commission rates. That’s right — you don’t get to choose. 

We’ve seen our clients foster revenue-generating partnerships and affiliate sales with comparison-shopping affiliate partners. 

Curious how? We’ll walk you through the unique affiliate partnership of comparison shopping partners, including examples, measuring progress, and how to get started. 

What is comparison shopping?

Comparison shopping is when a consumer browses through similar product listings from different brands on one site. These sites are known as comparison shopping websites or price comparison websites. 

Ever wondered what brand of treadmill you should buy?

Or which credit cards to sign up for?

Give us a product or service, and we’ll give you a long list of brands that offer them. 

That’s why these comparison sites are so handy. They help consumers compare a wide variety of similar products in terms of: 

• Price
• Features
• Shipping options
• Customer service
• Online reviews

Price comparison engines and sites might even keep their audience in the loop of special deals and price drops via website and email alerts. 

How do comparison shopping sites work?

Price comparison apps and websites aim to give their audience the insights they need to make a confident purchase. They do this with updated data feeds that display up-to-date information about available products. 

You might have a more general price comparison engine like Google Shopping or Yahoo Shopping, spanning all industries. 

Or, you’ll have more niche-specific sites like Compare.com for car insurance products. The lines between blogger and comparison site also blur with product comparison articles and product alternative guides. 

But back to price comparison websites — how do they make money? 

Affiliate commissions, of course. Every product listed in a category has a subsequent brand that pays a commission to the price comparison site for web hits or transactions. 

Some brands might have to eat the cost of a special discount to appear on a price comparison site. On top of that, this affiliate types usually demands a higher commission rate than the average partner. 

The question: is it worth it? We think so, as long as you pick the right partner. For example, if you cater more to American audiences, it’s not worth paying commission to a German comparison website for the odd sale.  

The benefits for brands working with comparison shopping sites

Don’t get us wrong: not every price comparison affiliate will bring you enough revenue or sales to make the cost worth it. 

That’s why we always advise our clients to track leads and conversions with affiliate platforms like Tapfiliate. That way, you can catch any partnerships that aren’t performing to your standard. You should also ensure all affiliate marketing agreements clearly define commission structures and fees so you’re not thrown off guard when it comes time to pay up. 

Still, the right partnerships can help you scale your affiliate business. 

Here’s how:

1. Improved brand awareness and credibility

Looking for more eyes on your products? Sure, an SEO strategy will put your brand on the search engine map. 

But you know who’s ranking even higher on the SERPs? Comparison websites. 

We know; we know — you already invest a ton of marketing dollars into your SEO strategy. So if you have a few web pages on page 1 or 2, you’re on a roll. But why can’t you up the ante with even more exposure?

Jay Perkins, founder of Living.fit, uses comparison websites to reinforce his brand’s place in his niche :

“If you are on multiple sites, it helps solidify your place in the market to the browsing consumer as opposed to if you are on just one — so I do reach out to a number of sites.”

Maybe Perkins has a few leads, early in the customer journey. They might have seen an ad for his products but didn’t feel inspired to make a purchase yet. Fast forward to them searching for the best barbells on the market, and coming across a niche comparison website like Barbend: 

Source: Barbend, Best Dumbells

Perkins just succeeded in placing his brand before the eyes of millions of potential customers — check out Barbend’s monthly traffic stats: 

Source: Similarweb, Barbend Traffic

The best part? He might have improved his brand’s street cred and awareness. But he also undoubtedly made his brand known to potential new customers, too.

2. New web visitors and traffic

We know that comparison websites dominate the SERPs. They’re a great way to reinforce your existing street cred for a lead considering a purchase. 

But what about new leads and customers? Your SEO strategy might not always reach them, but a comparison website might. 

Here’s the thing: members of your target audience might not know your brand by name yet. But a simple search query of “sofas under $1,000” might take them to a comparison website. 

Christian Hoff Olsen, CMO of Norwegian ecommerce shop Detailshop.no, launched partnerships with a few comparison sites to boost web traffic:

“We picked Prisjakt as our first comparison site as they are the most well-known in the Nordic countries. The reason behind using both affiliate networks and price comparison sites is that we want to gain as much traffic as possible. And in order to achieve our KPIs for growth, we need to acquire traffic from any channel we can.”

Perkins from Living.fit concurs, citing his comparison shopping affiliates as a strategy for more visibility: 

“Google has started ranking sites like this over brand sites, so to make sure we are found, that has been the number one criteria for sites we try to get on. The main benefit is obviously the visibility it provides to the brand as the top search positions get an overwhelming majority of the traffic.”

Keep reading for the biggest advantage of comparison shopping partners. 

3. An audience in later-stages of the buyer journey

Think about your purchase process. 

If you’re like 53% of consumers, you’re researching a product before buying it. 

So if you’re already at the point of comparing unit price and features, you’re further along in the buyer’s journey — specifically in the decision stage. 

Quick recap: the buyer journey has three stages: 

• Awareness: You’re aware of a problem you want to solve. 
  
• Consideration: You’re considering different paths for a solution, and considering different products along the way. 
• Decision: You know what you want to buy — you just need to do a tad more research to decide on the brand. 

Guess what: people browsing price comparison sites and apps are in the decision stage, too. 

This means you won’t need to spend as much time wine-ing and dining with this audience to buy your products. Instead, they just need a little budge, and the comparison shopping site gives it to them. 

How can brands work with comparison shopping sites?

Comparison sites might have slightly more robust brand requirements than the average blogger. Still, partnering with them is pretty straightforward. Here’s what you need to do: 

1. Launch an affiliate program. 

Don’t worry — you’re not the only successful brand without a program yet. We know the process is intimidating, which is why we included a program launch as one of our key services on Tapfiliate. 

You’ll start by signing up for Tapfiliate and choosing a subdomain. Plug in a few details like logos, affiliate links, and partners and voila! We’ll help you get sorted with a payout method, and then you’re good to go. 

Get your 👉 free 14-day trial of Tapfiliate today!

2. Create a product feed. 

You’ve probably heard of a news feed — a consistent stream of news content and posts to sift through. You’ll want to create a product feed, which has the same idea but for your products and services. 

Product feeds must be updated regularly with features, product availability, images, sizes, currencies, names, shipping options, and price points to be most relevant for your audience. You can create product data feeds in a few different formats like XML, CSV, TSV, and JASON; however, you’ll need to use XML (extensible markup language) to streamline your product feed sharing through Tapfiliate. 

3. Reach out to comparison sites. 

Have you noticed any affiliate comparison sites and thought, “I want my brand THERE!”?

They probably have a link at the footer of your site inviting you to reach out. You might need to follow their application channels and gather some relevant data for them, like traffic and sales specs, for example. 

If you keep reading, you’ll come across 20 examples of comparison shopping sites that we rounded up for your review.

4. Watch the magic happen. 

Now that you’re all signed up, your new partners will start using your data feed to share your product details with their audiences. Once you add a few partners, you’ll see conversions and traffic hits. 

You can keep track of your comparison shopping partner performance with Tapfiliate’s dashboard.

21 of the best price comparison sites

So, how can you start leveraging price comparison sites in your affiliate program? Let’s start with finding you some potential partners: 

1. Google Shopping

If your audience is American, Google Shopping is a top-notch comparison shopping service partner for your brand. The comparison shopping engine rakes in over 3 million monthly views and offers competitive flat-rate commissions depending on your country of residence. 

• Pro: Open to all niches; competitive commission rate; easy to sign up
• Con: Less traffic from users outside the US

2. NerdWallet

Do you sell financial products? Look at NerdWallet as a dream affiliate partnership. This comparison website gathers a ton of traffic for their informational finance articles spanning topics like debt management, student loans, and credit cards. 

However, the publication also offers a ton of comparison pages for various types of car, medical, and homeowners insurance, types of checking accounts, niche credit cards, mortgage lenders, and more. 

• Pro: Best for finance, credit, and insurance niches, helpful calculators and financial tools
• Con: An intimidatingly vast amount of content to sift through

3. ShopSavvy

This comparison shopping app lets you scan product barcodes while you’re shopping in-store. Then, you compare that product with thousands of others and see differences in customer reviews and pricing. 

• Pro: AI tool to summarize endless product reviews for faster decision-making
• Con: Aggressive ads without the subscription

4. Shopzilla

Founded in 1996, Shopzilla is a trusted veteran in the shopping comparison world. The platform features tons of product niches and sees an influx of traffic from Germany and the US. 

• Pro: Extensive industry experience and immense revenue that speak to conversions
• Con: Commission rates aren’t transparent

5. PriceGrabber

Another comparison website veteran, PriceGrabber has been in the game for over 20 years. They’re part of the Connexity umbrella, pioneers in the retail marketing field. You’ll find endless product categories, ample US traffic, and even a newsletter that reaches customer email inboxes each week!

• Pro: Strong reputation; email newsletter
• Con: Some reviews cite fraudulent clicks

6. Yahoo Shopping

It might not be Google, but Yahoo Shopping stands out for its near-million in monthly traffic, diverse content types to engage potential buyers, and a significant uptick in popularity amongst Mexican and Indian shoppers. 

• Pro: Industry notoriety
• Con: Requires users to sign in and make an account to use features like the price tracker

7. Compare.com 

Compare.com is a comparison shopping app that offers one of the most user-friendly shopping comparison experiences. You can hand-pick products and see stark contrasts in price and features on a color-coded, customizable template. 

• Pro: Convenient app and accessible interface
• Con: Requires a download, not as seamless for web browsing

8. Idealo

If you want to catch the attention of German consumers, you can’t slack on putting your products on Idealo. With over 50 million monthly views from primarily Germany, this is a price comparison site to appeal to German cost-savers. 

• Pro: Massive traffic numbers
• Con: Centered around Germany

9. GetPrice

Looking to sell to Aussies? Then you have to try this affiliate program, garnering hundreds of thousands of monthly hits from the land down under. GetPrice also stands out with its unique social media traffic from Whatsapp and Pinterest. 

• Pro: Focus on Australian viewers
• Con: High-ish cost per click at 0.50 AUD for Australian businesses

10. PriceRunner

If you want to tap into audiences in Sweden, Denmark, and the UK, PriceRunner is a great option. This comparison website compares millions of products across virtually all industries, including tech, sports, travel, and home. 

• Pro: Over 20 years of industry experience and SEO experts on staff to foster millions in monthly traffic
• Con: Lack of transparency in commission rate requirements

11. Compare the Market

Compare the Market ranks #1 in their niche within the UK, bringing in tens of millions of monthly users to their site. You can compare endless energy, bank account, and insurance products — but most impressive is the wide variety of loan and mortgage products. 

• Pro: Very high consumer satisfaction ratings; insurance niche
• Con: UK-centered

12. GoCompare

Financial product brands, you’re on a roll with yet another UK-focused insurance-financial-product comparison site — this one just has a tad less traffic. 

GoCompare helps users compare car, home, and business insurance, along with bank accounts, utility providers, and credit products. The UK-based website garners millions of hits per month. 

• Pro: One of the only shopping comparison websites dedicated to financial products
• Con: Not relevant for US audiences

13. Camelcamelcamel

If you’re selling products on Amazon, Camelcamelcamel is a must retail strategy for your affiliate roster. They’re the only price comparison website that exclusively focuses on Amazon deals, products, and price drops. 

• Pro: Specialized knowledge and experience marketing Amazon products from various niches
• Con: Multiple commission hits from both Amazon and Camelcamelcamel

14. Bizrate

Bizrate has a hierarchy of affiliate giants in ownership. Connexity owns Bizrate (they also own Shopzilla), and Taboolah is Connexity’s parent company (they own Skimlinks). The platform features user-friendly lists of weekly price drops and an extensive category range. If you have an older audience on Facebook, you’ll enjoy the fact that most social traffic to Bizrate comes from there. 

• Pro: Immense monthly traffic (19M+)
• Con: Overwhelmingly negative customer reviews and low-star consumer ratings. 

15. Shopping.com

Shopping.com wins points for its diverse audiences, attracting web visitors from the UK, US, Mexico, and Germany fairly evenly. They have decades of experience in the price comparison game and 

Pro: Extensive discount flags and alerts, dedicated seller support, eBay focus

Con: Vague access to sign-up information

16. BuyVia

BuyVia shares discount alerts, coupon codes, and price comparisons for a wide variety of major retailers like Burger King, Home Depot, and Macy’s. Most of its web traffic comes from the US. 

• Pro: Large US audience
• Con: Plain graphics and not particularly user-friendly 

17. Buscape

Portuguese-speaking audiences, especially from Brazil,  flock in the tens of millions to Buscape every month. The 20-year-old titan helps users find the lowest price of a product through discount alerts, historical price charts, and most recently, cashback!

• Pro: One of the highest annual revenues on our list, indicating tons of conversion potential
• Con: Relatively irrelevant to audiences outside of Brazil and Portugal

18. ShopWiki

Founded in 2005, ShopWiki uses its own proprietary crawling technology, like a typical search engine, to deliver a wide variety of product and store reviews and specs. 

• Pro: Crawls ecommerce stores
• Con: No products within the Asian market, with the exception of listings from big marketplaces like Amazon

19. Become.com

Become.com is a California-based price comparison site across most shopping categories. We love its user-friendly search engine. While reviews from customers are largely positive, many are outdated and suggest a dip in popularity. This is evidenced by their low traffic each month (just under 2,000 hits in June 2023, according to Similarweb.com). 

• Pro: Large product variety and many shopping categories
• Con: Relatively low traffic

20. Tweakers

This Dutch technology comparison giant has been around since 1998, with much of their millions of traffic hits coming from YouTube. 

• Pro: Millions in monthly traffic hits (16M in March 2023)
• Cons: Minimal traffic from anywhere except for the Netherlands and Belgium

21. Cosmetify

If you’re one of the world’s thousands of beauty retailers, having Cosmetify as an affiliate partner should get you some exposure. Bonus points if you have a Pinterest account — nearly 40% of their traffic comes from there!

• Pro:  Significantly high percentage of customer satisfaction on review sites
• Con: Only for beauty retailers

Start working with comparison shopping sites today

Comparison shopping sites are valuable traffic and conversion sources for major retailers and smaller ecommerce stores alike. Many of them have near-automatic acceptance, too, which makes it that much easier to start making affiliate sales. 

But no matter which affiliates you choose, you need a solid management platform to keep yourself organized. 

Tapfiliate helps you manage relationships with hundreds of affiliate partners through streamlined communications, branded materials and dashboards, and shareable social posts. 

On top of that, we’ll help you launch, improve, or grow your affiliate program with performance tracking and efficient integrations. 

Ready to scale your affiliate program with online comparison shopping? Get started with Tapfiliate’s 14-day trial!