price comparison

Price comparison and the great energy debate

Last week Co-Op energy boss Ramsey Dunning made a very public attack on price comparison sites, citing them as misleading and pushing up energy bills. 

Dunning stated that price comparison sites such as uSwitch, Moneysupermarket and Energy Helpline should disclose how much they make in commission from the energy partners.

While I of course advocate a continued development of greater transparency to consumers, I find it difficult to understand exactly what it is that Dunning is hoping such a move will achieve. 

How seven ecommerce sites present price comparison details

One of the benefits of ecommerce is that it’s very easy to present a range of products side-by-side so that shoppers can compare the various features.

This makes greatly helps the decision-making process as customers can select a product based on which has the most relevant features as well as being the best value for money.

Retailers can also present additional details such as special offers and product reviews in order to increase the chances of a conversion.

Marketing vs. inertia: how to make sure marketing wins

In September 2012 the UK Payments Council released a report stating that in the year prior to May 2012, only 2.5% of consumers surveyed had switched bank.

Not just that, but 88% hadn’t even considered switching. 

Not necessarily a surprising statistic, banking is a system with a lot of inertia on behalf of the customer and a lot of friction on behalf of the banks. 

Google’s visibility for car insurance searches improves overnight

Google’s search visibility for car insurance comparison has leapt from 0% to 75% in the space of two days since it launched its own rival to the likes of Confused.com. 

According to stats from Greenlight, Google’s car insurance comparison service is now visible for at least 500,000 relevant UK searches per month from this point onwards.

This will obviously have competitors in what is a fiercely competitive market worried… 

Is Google abusing its position with credit card comparison?

Google has announced that it is launching a price comparison service offering information on credit cards and bank accounts ahead of the natural search listings.

While Google’s price comparison service comes below the paid links, it includes images that make it more eye-catching than normal PPC ads.

This puts it in direct competition with high-spending advertisers such as moneysupermarket.com and comparethemarket.com.

This is not the first time Google has gone up against its advertisers. In December it began promoting its own hotel finder above paid links.