In the run-up to the holidays, product- and price comparison sites are hotter than ever, with consumers looking for guidance in selecting the right product at the best price. Most sites does however use a far too basic and linear approach to product comparison, which often misses the opportunity to add real value and important up-sell.
While the process in finding a suitable product might be visually different between various e-commerce and affiliate sites, what most have in common is that they utilise a very basic and linear model by simply filtering out products that don’t qualify as per the users initial selection. This approach assumes that the consumer knows exactly what they are looking for. While this might be sufficent for power users comfortable with choosing the specifications, for anyone else, it increases the risk of mistakenly excluding an actually better option.
The linear model of product comparison
For example, even though I’m specifically looking for an 11-inch netbook (since I want something light to travel with), if a sales person shows me a brilliant 13 inch-model of more value but with increased power and of equal weight, I might just part with some extra cash and get a better machine that’s more suitable to my real needs (multitasking). For many e-commerce and product comparison sites, this is a missed opportunity since my initial settings would have filtered out the larger laptop from the outset. This highlights the problem of looking at each feature in isolation – what really matters is the complete solution, not just the individual parts. What we need is a multidimensional and optimally non-linear model, which would make for a more useful decision making tool.
Since even the simplest product selection feature is your virtual sales person – if it’s not up to scratch and gives less than optimal suggestions, you’re potentially loosing out on sales, up-sell, return-business while risking negative word-of-mouth (by giving bad advice).
While still utilizing a linear model, a new site which aims to look at the complete solution is Measey.com. It asks users about key aspects of the sought after product, and also to weigh the importance of each feature. It then calculates a score and shows the best possible candidates. While in beta, it still provides an interesting concept towards a more useful comparison functionality.
As any experienced sales person would know – key to create a win-win sale is to discover the real needs by asking the right questions.
US site Measey uses a weighted scoring system to recommend products
Do you have any examples of really good product comparison sites?
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