Price comparison websites in the USA and Germany

 

Introduction

Price comparison websites in the USA and Germany both like to think of themselves as being an automatic choice for online shoppers to turn to when they are trying to find products to buy online. They claim to offer the best deals for goods or services by searching the internet for you and presenting to you with the very best deals to be had. Whilst using a price comparison website will return some great offers of deals to you after entering some basic information - it doesn’t mean that the cheapest of those deals is the best one you could choose. People in the USA will find the same but, if you compare the prices offered on more than one price comparison website in Germany  you will find variations in the prices and deals being offered - why is this?

Comparing prices on price comparison websites

First of all some price comparison websites will add on a finders fee to the price being offered, artificially raising the price you might have paid for the product directly from the manufacturer, or raising the price compared to a price comparison website that takes a commission on the selling price as advertised. Secondly, other price comparison websites are actually owned by one of the company’s listed in the price comparisons. Obviously, such company’s will ensure that their products prices can beat those of their rivals, even if they’re offered as market loss leaders. Thirdly, you need to check the details and small print of price comparison website offers. For example in a price comparison website in the USA you might see two prices for a new laptop, one priced at $450 from supplier A and one at $500 from supplier B. Ostensibly they’re for the same make and model of laptop - but on closer inspection of the details supplier A’s laptop has 1Gb of memory compared to 2Gb on the one from supplier B; which is the best value, rather than which is the cheapest? Finally, having used the price comparison website to find the best possible deal - always check with the manufacturers website itself, just to make sure there’s not an even better deal you can get from them directly.

Comparing price comparison websites in the USA and Germany

Online shopping and price comparison websites fall into two basic categories; those that have an international presence and those that are unique to one country. International ones, other than those affiliated to particular web-browsers and search engines, include “Shopzilla”. Taken as an example “Shopzilla” perfectly illustrates the differences as to what is expected in an online price comparison website in the USA and Germany. Without seeing the USA and German versions it would be quite reasonable to expect them to be identical, apart from one using US English and the other German. Just about the only similarities between these two sites is the use of the colors orange and green; apart from that they are as different as you can imagine. The USA version has a very simple home page inviting you to search for a product or use the eye-catching menu system to go straight to a category of product you might be looking for. The German version is more like reading an ebook. Black text written in a small font on a white background might be functional - but is certainly not inviting. The German home page is littered with pictures of things that are supposed to make you want to buy them, but are presented in such away that they just seem - boring.  As for the menu to select categories from - well you might need a magnifying glass to find it! The same is true comparing two price comparison websites that are unique to their respective countries. Dealtime is an American price comparison website. Although its home page does have photo images of some products for sale, it’s not cluttered up with unnecessary text and does entice and invite you to select categories of products to search for. However, the German price comparison website Netmall - again has too much text in small fonts on white backgrounds and a category menu system that you could easily miss.  Even worse, if you select an item like the DIY & Gardening category in Netmall, you’re presented with a webpage showing a few products and a list of other pages showing more products. ie. It doesn’t offer you a menu to sub-divide the category into; instead it just randomly lists everything on offer. Of course it’s a matter of personal preference which style of price comparison website you prefer - simple and direct selections to get you to your product or lot’s of research to follow about all the products on offer?