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Webcredible's report points out a decline in the popularity of comparison sites, with Moneysupermarket.com, Gocompare.com, and Confused.com experiencing an average fall of 30% in visitor numbers between January and April this year. The market is also becoming ever more competitive, with newspaper websites such as The Daily Mail setting up comparison services. Here are some areas where comparison sites can improve: Presentation of results Four of the sites present results in columns providing ticks and text to show which areas are covered, and showing as much information as possible for easy comparison, as in this example from Moneysupermarket.com: <img alt="Moneysupermarket results page" height="168" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3435/3855014179_77b9acae34_o.jpg" style="vertical-align: middle;" width="460" /> However, uSwitch provides less information on its results pages, forcing users to click the link for more details, something which slows the process and is likely to frustrate some customers: <img alt="uSwitch results pages" height="197" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3532/3855797260_7a725063d8_o.jpg" width="460" /> Filtering and sorting results pages The ability to manipulate search results is crucial, as it allows customers to make more sense of results and eliminate the policies they are not interested in to produce a more manageable number. Moneysupermarket.com's results page fails miserably here, as it offers no options at all to sort or filter, just a compare feature which lets you select up to five policies. With 50+ insurance products on display, sorted only by price, this is asking customers to do a lot of work to find a suitable policy. Gocompare.com provides filters but doesn't remove irrelevant products from the results page, which isn't helping customers to narrow their choice of polices. In the example below, I have selected the 'legal assistance' and 'home emergency' filters but it still displays policies that don't match these filters as the first three results, when more relevant policies are displayed further down the page: <img alt="Gocompare search filters" height="245" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2568/3855077717_242dd85ee7_o.jpg" width="460" /> Confused.com provides a better example, greying out the policies that don't match the search filters, making it easier for users to find relevant results: <img alt="Confused.com search filters" height="270" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2470/3855093043_cd92c7a98b_o.jpg" width="460" /> Retrieving quotes While looking through some of these sites, my quotes timed out, and getting back in to find my details was way too difficult. Having spent time entering address details, occupation, the number of rooms in my house and so on for a quote, the last thing I want to do is go back and enter it all again. Making it easy for customers to go back and retrieve quotes seems an obvious thing to do, but Moneysupermarket.com doesn't even provide an option to retrieve home insurance quotes, while both Comparethemarket and uSwitch required the quote reference number. If you happen to have forgotten this, as in this example from uSwitch, then the only option is to start again: <img alt="uSwitch retrieve quote" height="179" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2572/3855904130_5f06d9d290_o.jpg" width="460" /> Gocompare.com and Confused.com took a more sensible approach to the problem, asking for personal details which are not likely to be forgotten: <img alt="Gocompare retrieve quote" height="277" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2593/3855114517_803ae79783_o.jpg" width="416" /> This is a much better approach, and makes it much more likely that customers will buy the policy from the site. Not proving easy options to retrieve quotes places an unnecessary obstacle in front of customers.

Webcredible's report points out a decline in the popularity of comparison sites, with Moneysupermarket.com, Gocompare.com, and Confused.com experiencing an average fall of 30% in visitor numbers between January and April this year. The market is also becoming ever more competitive, with newspaper websites such as The Daily Mail setting up comparison services. Here are some areas where comparison sites can improve: Presentation of results Four of the sites present results in columns providing ticks and text to show which areas are covered, and showing as much information as possible for easy comparison, as in this example from Moneysupermarket.com: <img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3435/3855014179_77b9acae34_o.jpg" alt="Moneysupermarket results page" width="460" height="168" /> However, uSwitch provides less information on its results pages, forcing users to click the link for more details, something which slows the process and is likely to frustrate some customers: <img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3532/3855797260_7a725063d8_o.jpg" alt="uSwitch results pages" width="460" height="197" /> Filtering and sorting results pages The ability to manipulate search results is crucial, as it allows customers to make more sense of results and eliminate the policies they are not interested in to produce a more manageable number. Moneysupermarket.com's results page fails miserably here, as it offers no options at all to sort or filter, just a compare feature which lets you select up to five policies. With 50+ insurance products on display, sorted only by price, this is asking customers to do a lot of work to find a suitable policy. Gocompare.com provides filters but doesn't remove irrelevant products from the results page, which isn't helping customers to narrow their choice of polices. In the example below, I have selected the 'legal assistance' and 'home emergency' filters but it still displays policies that don't match these filters as the first three results, when more relevant policies are displayed further down the page: <img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2568/3855077717_242dd85ee7_o.jpg" alt="Gocompare search filters" width="460" height="245" /> Confused.com provides a better example, greying out the policies that don't match the search filters, making it easier for users to find relevant results: <img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2470/3855093043_cd92c7a98b_o.jpg" alt="Confused.com search filters" width="460" height="270" /> Retrieving quotes While looking through some of these sites, my quotes timed out, and getting back in to find my details was way too difficult.  Having spent time entering address details, occupation, the number of rooms in my house and so on for a quote, the last thing I want to do is go back and enter it all again. Making it easy for customers to go back and retrieve quotes seems an obvious thing to do, but Moneysupermarket.com doesn't even provide an option to retrieve home insurance quotes, while both Comparethemarket and uSwitch required the quote reference number.  If you happen to have forgotten this, as in this example from uSwitch, then the only option is to start again: <img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2572/3855904130_5f06d9d290_o.jpg" alt="uSwitch retrieve quote" width="460" height="179" /> Gocompare.com and Confused.com took a more sensible approach to the problem, asking for personal details which are not likely to be forgotten: <img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2593/3855114517_803ae79783_o.jpg" alt="Gocompare retrieve quote" width="416" height="277" /> This is a much better approach, and makes it much more likely that customers will buy the policy from the site. Not proving easy options to retrieve quotes places an unnecessary obstacle in front of customers.

2009-08-25T11:04:37+01:00

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Some of the UK's leading financial comparison sites need to work hard at improving the user experience on their websites, according to a new study. According to Webcredible's <a href="http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/white-papers/price-comparison.shtml">Future Comparisons white paper (pdf)</a>, presentation of search results, and the ability to manipulate and sort was one major area for improvement, while customer trust issues were often not addressed adequately. The report looks at the five main financial comparison sites in the UK: Moneysupermarket.com, Gocompare.com, Comparethemarket.com, Confused.com, and uSwitch.com.

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For more, see our <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/comparison-engines-buyer-s-guide-2008">Comparison Engines Buyers Guide</a>, which is aimed at those who are investigating the market for comparison engines, with profiles of 16 leading comparison websites. The guide provides detail on the issues and trends affecting this sector, as well as containing tips and pitfalls for merchants about how to maximise their returns from this channel. The report is relevant for a range of sectors including retail, financial services, travel and utilities.

Price comparison sites need to work on usability false

2009-08-25T13:38:00+01:00

price-comparison-sites-need-to-work-on-usability

2009-08-25T13:16:45+01:00

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