CPC Strategy Releases Q4 2011 Top 10 Comparison Shopping Engine Rankings [Study]

By Tinuiti Team

Feb 02 2012

Today CPC Strategy released its 12th study on the best comparison shopping engines (CSEs) online. The CSE rankings, done each quarter, looks at more than 5 million clicks from more than 100 online retailers to help industry analysts, online retailers, and online marketers figure out which CSE best fits their needs.

Here’s a sneak peek of the full report:

Traffic

The complete study includes a detailed analysis of the best 10 CSEs based on 6 key performance metrics:

Total traffic
Total revenue
Average CPC
ROI
Seller support
Merchant tools

It also contains a breakdown of the best CSEs for four online retail categories:

electronics
home & garden
sporting goods
apparel

Some notable developments in this quarter’s rankings:

1. Amazon Product Ads grabbed the top traffic spot in this quarter’s comparison shopping engine rankings.

2. Pronto surprised us as the 2nd best converting CSE.

3. Become.com contained the top spot as the most responsive comparison shopping engine online. This marks the 9th quarter in a row where Become has retained the top spot as the best in merchant seller support.

4. Bing Shopping’s partnership with Shopping.com brought down traffic, revenue, and conversion rates dramatically, placing it towards the bottom of the pack in the top 10.

5. Google Product Search came in 4th place this year for total traffic sent to online retailers – it’s lowest showing ever.