Thanks to the Internet, the way we buy everything from beauty products to new appliances is changing. Where we were once limited to what was available at local outlets and constrained by cumbersome special orders and catalogue shopping, finding your next set of dishes or stocking your home office can be done on your smartphone while your children are having their afternoon nap.
But with the increased popularity of online shopping, new problems are emerging: the sheer number of options now available can be a bit daunting, and with retailers of all sizes working hard to distinguish their brands in a highly competitive market, making good purchasing decisions is far from easy. How can you be sure to find the best deal on a product when there are hundreds of options available? How do you know that the price on your go-to e-commerce site isn’t inflated?
Fortunately, new solutions are emerging alongside these problems, and one of the most popular new e-commerce trends is price comparison apps and websites. Where a few large online retailers once dominated the market, price comparison apps are democratizing online shopping by giving smaller retailers offering competitive deals more access to shoppers who want to find the highest quality products at the lowest price.
So, what is a price comparison app, and how is it different from any of the other retailer apps available? Unlike an e-commerce website, price comparison apps don’tactually sell you a product: instead, they aggregate the prices for millions of different products from thousands of different retail websites to find the best prices on the Internet. In this way, price comparison apps function like a filter, sifting through the websites of independent retailers so you don’t have to.
But price comparison apps aren’t just a way to quickly compare prices — they also provide a whole new set of tools to become a smarter shopper.
For example, if your current bag is getting a little worn and you are thinking about replacing it, price comparison sites like Yroo provide you with a whole range of searchable options that help you be extremely specific in your search. Do you want a backpack, a bucket bag, a cross body bag, or a tote? Do you want canvas, leather, or cowhide? What color do you want it to be, and in what price range? These intuitive shopping tags help you narrow down your search while pointing you toward retailers you might not have thought to search beforehand.
The site also lets you see what the price’s history has been, and whether it is increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable. If a price is particularly good, the site will flag it for you, and if there’s a product you want to keep your eye on, you can “favorite” it and receive an update when it goes on sale.
With these kinds of tools available, online shopping is not only more convenient than shopping at traditional outlets,it’s also a good deal more affordable, which is one of the reasons so many American families are spending more of their dollars online every year. A recent study notes that 79% of Americans shop at online retailers, and that number is only set to rise as e-commerce becomes more engrained in our shopping culture.
