Shopping Portals & Search Engines

A shopping portal is a type of website that lists businesses and brands that are selling a product or service. A shopping portal is generally run by a third-party website. It will offer the customers an incentive for shopping at the retailers that are affiliated with that specific shopping portal. The shopping portal will then take a cut off any purchase that is made from the retailer that they directed you to. The shopper will be given points or some type of reward for shopping at the retailer as well. Most major airlines and credit card companies will have some sort of online shopping portal that allows users to shop at various retailers and redeem bonuses.

A few of the most popular shopping portals include:

  • United Airlines
  • Chase
  • Choice Hotels
  • Virgin America
  • US Ariways
  • Hilton
  • Marriott Rewards
  • Discover
  • JetBlue
  • Amtrak
  • American Airlines

Search Engines

A search engine is a program online that allows you to search for and find documents and information that is returned based on certain keywords on the world wide web. A search engine makes it easy to find the information that you are looking for by curating results that closely match your search. Search engines may also have filters allowing you to further narrow your search based on the type of file, date, popularity and more. There are many different search engines you can choose from including Google, Firefox, Bing, Yahoo! Search, Ask, Baidu, AOL Search and WolframAlpha.

Price Check

A price check is a way of comparing prices that are charged by various retailers to ensure that you get the best price possible. Many retailers including e-commerce platforms have software available that allows customers to search through a variety of different websites to compare the price of a product or service from various stores or companies. Some retailers and companies may offer a price match guarantee which will match the price or offer a slightly lower price than other retailers are offering if a customer brings it to their attention. Using price checking software allows users to find the best price possible easily from the comfort of their own home or from their mobile device.

Google Shopping

Google Shopping allows users to search for products online and compare prices between different vendors easily. Google Shopping is a site that is powered by two different platforms- Google Merchant Center and AdWords. Google Merchant Center is a cyber location that your product feed is organized in a Google-approved format. Google AdWords is the way that you can manage and organize your shopping campaigns. This allows you to make your campaigns go live. It also allows you to manage bids, gain insight and make optimization changes. Google Shopping requires feed creation and optimization. You will include your product’s information, images and price. You will also need to bid depending on your strategies and campaigns. You will want to see how your advertising strategy is doing so you will need to monitor and optimize. This allows you to make changes based on the data and performance of your campaigns.

Price Comparison Websites

Price comparison websites allow users to easily find the best deals for certain products or services online. There are many price comparison websites that can help you to find the product or service you are looking for at the lowest price without having to spend time mining for coupons, codes or rewards. If you are looking to save money on your next online purchase you should try out one of the following reputable price comparison websites:

  • PriceRunner
  • Shopbot
  • Yahoo! Shopping
  • BizRate
  • Pronto
  • NexTag
  • Google Shopping