The New Secret Weapon For Comparison Shopping Websites

marketing, call tracking, dedicated numbers, webcallback, webconnect, 

As consumers, we’ve all used the internet to shop, whether it’s for airline tickets, hotels, or just to check which local grocer has the best price on fresh apples. Well, what if you are a provider of comparison shopping? How can you make sure your site isn’t just used for research? In this blog we explore 6 ways comparison shopping websites can incorporate iovox call tracking to maximize their revenue.

Comparison shopping sites are fairly easy to understand from the name alone. They help buyers find the optimal price for products and services. The price comparison websites visited by eager shoppers aggregate information from a variety of sources including from retailers, manufacturers, consumer review sites and any other sources deemed reliable and where the information provided might help a consumer make a purchase.

Online shopping is BIG business.

When you consider global online sales in 2020 were estimated at $3.914 trillion the opportunity for a well-run comparison shopping site is enormous. While America tends to lead the way when it comes to online shopping with nearly 70% of Americans having made an online purchase, that is far from uncommon.

According to OptinMonster, the average annual revenue generated from a US-based online shopper is $1,804, followed closely behind by the UK at $1,629, Sweden at $1,446, France at $1,228 and Germany at $1,064.

Trillions in revenue is a lot in ANY language and clearly the opportunity globally is enormous.

In that sea of opportunity, how does a comparison shopping website do a better job making their site more valuable to partners AND making sure they get paid for the value they deliver?

As a global company with customers in the comparison shopping industry in areas such as utilities, mobile phones, insurance, credit, energy, and internet services, we at iovox have valuable experience in this area and have helped many of our clients increase their revenue significantly through the use of call tracking.

What problem does call tracking solve for price comparison websites?

Comparison sites live and die on attribution

If it can be proven that a comparison website generated a lead which became a sale, the site operator gets paid. This is a simple concept, but it’s not always simple to execute.

Let’s take Sarah, our online shopper, for example.

Sarah is in the market for broadband internet services and is using a well-known comparison shopping site to research her options. Sarah is a “cord cutter” and she’s looking for something that has high capacity, a short term contract, and doesn’t require bundles with TV or phone services. The research is taking a little longer than she hoped but she’s got a pretty good idea who she wants to select but is out of time for the evening and is about to be late for her dinner date.

The next day, Sarah has a few questions about the service package of her preferred vendor and rather than going back to the comparison shopping website because there was no phone number, she decides to call the vendor directly. After about 15 minutes on the phone, Sarah’s questions are answered, and she places the order for the broadband internet services.

Who are the winners and losers here?

• ☑ Sarah wins because she got the deal she wanted for the service that fits her needs.
• ☑ The broadband internet vendor wins because it only took 15 minutes to get a new order.
• ☒ The comparison shopping site? They lost out. Sarah spent all her time researching on their site, but when it came time to buy, she went around the system and purchased directly. And since comparison shopping sites live and die on attribution this site had no way to prove that sale was a byproduct of Sarah’s time on their site.

How do you fix this very common attribution problem for a comparison shopping website?

A simple implementation of iovox Dedicated Numbers or iovox Dynamic Numbers is a good place to start.

Let’s replay the scenario above with iovox call tracking implemented.

Sarah does all her research, but this time, there’s a different phone number for ‘more information’ associated with each of the primary vendors she’s considering. She writes down the number of two of the vendors and calls one of them back the next day. Her call is answered by the broadband vendor just as it would have been if she had called directly, but this time, the comparison shopping site can tell that a lead from their system resulted in a 15-minute conversation. With iovox’s transcription and speech analytics services, the comparison site records and transcribes business calls for quality control and they now have irrefutable evidence that their site was responsible for Sarah’s purchase.

Now everyone wins.

• ☑ Sarah got her preferred service.
• ☑ The broadband internet vendor got a new customer.
• ☑ The comparison shopping site got paid for their efforts.

Two other options for the comparison shopping site is to utilize the popular iovox WebCallBack feature or the new iovox WebConnect feature. If Sarah had questions during her search, she could’ve clicked a button and requested a call back from the vendor, or been connected directly to the vendor. Either service would have provided 100% attribution.

The reality, particularly for higher value, or term contract type sales, is that a phone call is often the last step a prepared buyer will take before making a purchase. Getting credit for that ‘last mile’ of the sales process is essential for comparison shopping sites and iovox call tracking can help.

Comparison sites rely on traffic generation as well. They need visitors to pass along to vendors in order to make money. Guess what other new iovox tool smart comparison shopping websites now have to help them generate traffic?

Keyword analysis from thousands of recorded calls from potential buyers asking questions prior to making a purchase decision.

Call data is invaluable to the online advertising team at comparison shopping sites as they can harvest long tail keywords that can then be used in online campaigns to drive down the CPC, (cost per click) because long tail keywords have lower CPC since they are not as popular or known.

In addition, when this call data is used intelligently with iovox’s Dynamic Call Tracking, advertisers can associate telephone numbers with a keyword pair and get even more insights into the types of searches that are driving the best leads.

iovox call data is like a secret weapon in your marketing arsenal, helping inform your online advertising and lead generation strategy continuously with the most up-to-date information available.

Whether you’re a comparison shopping website, or running marketing for e-commerce activities at your company, there’s a good chance iovox can help with attribution of what’s working through the use of our call tracking solutions.

To learn more about iovox tap the green WebConnect button on the side of this page to give us a call. We look forward to learning more about your business and how we may help.

You can also email us at hello@iovox.com or give us a call toll-free from within the US at +1 888 369 9519.

From outside the US please reach us at one of these numbers:

London, UK +44 (0)20 7099 1070
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