Shopping 2.0 Smackdown: Shopping Engines Compared
- December 8th, 2006 /
There is someone on my shopping list who wants a iPod Nano. I figured this would be a great item to use to compare the proliferation of shopping engines that are out there. I have traditionally been a big Froogle user. It’s simple and straightforward but comprehensive, and I feel like I am finding the lowest prices on things I’m shopping for. But lately, there have been more merchants who are gaming the system (call it Shopping Engine Optimization). I click on the great price that they have on an item, and show up at their site only to learn that the item is now $200 more. I’m not sure if its cloaking or not, but it decreases the value of the shopping engine to me.
So, its time to put to the test all of the shopping engines out there. There’s social shopping, shopping 2.0, reverse auction shopping, and the plain old shopping meta search engines. Let’s battle it out. I’m searching for a Ipod Nano 2nd Generation 4 Gig. ($199 at the Apple Store)
- MySimon – This was my first shopping engine experience a long time ago. The service has grown and I like the recommended accessories, like armbands that they mention along with the iPod Nano. Bottom line for the iPod Nano 2nd Generation 4 Gig – $174.
- Froogle (by Google) – The websites a little overrun with stuff I’m not looking for. It doesn’t filter out just the iPods, but the bottom line price is $118, can that be right? (After research its not, its a European site, and its not actually the price for a Nano)
- Shopping.com – This is a mess. It is all accessories, I can’t even find the iPod Nano amongst all the noise. No price found.
- Shopzilla – Nice layout, it filters through the accessories, right to the products. It filters things very nicely, and i can sort now by color. It has its own reviews and helps to cal shipping. Lowest price $189.
- TheFind.com – At first it looks good, but I’m not getting any 2nd generation iPods. So I type in 4 gig and all accessories come up. I get a price of $69 and click to the website and it looks homemade. Again, someone spamming the system. Lowest real price $189.
- Jellyfish – This is the site that shares with the consumer the affiliate commission that the merchant pays to be listed. It’s a nice idea, because the lowest price I find is $185, which is $189 – the $4 rebate I get for clicking through Jellyfish.
- MyTriggers – Nice layout, not quite as clean as some of the others, but I quickly find the one I’m looking for. $189.
- Crowdstorm – I thought this was a shopping engine, but its more of a social shopping site. I love the user reviews and recommendations on the iPod. If it actually integrated a price search engine, it would be great because it has the social component down. No price.
So the winner is… Well, I think $189 is the best I’ll do. This was a little bit of an unfair test because Apple so closely manages the experience of its products. But, as far as the engine that provided the most best experience, I think JellyFish is really consumer-centric and it also is comprehensive and well laid out. So, that’s where I’ll be buying.
I’d love to hear everyone else’s experiences. Here are a few other reviews. Let me know if I skipped a great engine. Happy Holidays and good luck shopping. The great news is there’s never been a better time to be doing all your shopping online.
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Dec 08, 2006 at 7:00 pm
I’m a big fan of Jellyfish, but I do have a deal that can get your iPod down an extra 2 bucks. If you get a free account on Military.com, then go to the Discounts section, they’ll give you a 17% discount on everything from The Apple Store. They have the 4GB iPod Nano in a variety of colors for $187 with free shipping.
My experience with Jellyfish’s shopping engine has been frustrating. Because only those merchants that have worked out listing agreements are in the engine, and JF is still a relatively new site, it is far from being comprehensive. Big names merchants like KBToys, TheSportsAuthority, JCPenney, Sharper Image, and Macy’s are nowhere to be found. Yet.
But because they work out their revenue-sharing arrangements directly with their merchants, the upside is that Jellyfish is sometimes able to offer prices on specific items that are lower for its members than one could get from buying directly from the merchant.
I feel confident that Jellyfish *will* grow to be a comprehensive shopping engine/rebate site — it’s still just 6 months old and it has grown tremendously since the start — but for right now, its shopping engine is just something I use to supplement the findings of other shopbots.
Dec 08, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Hi Becky -
Thanks for your comment. I actually had a little frustration w/ Jellyfish too, I clicked through to buy the iPod and although the site had calculated the price for me, with shipping it was more expensive then the some of the other options. Anyway, I appreciate your weighing in. That’s a great tip about the military.com discount. Do you have to be in the military? If not, and especially if it supports our armed forces, its a great deal.
We’d love to hear other people experiences. Let us know the price you can find for the new iPod Nano 2nd Gen 4 Gig. Cheers.
Chris
Dec 10, 2006 at 10:54 am
Thanks for the review Chris. We are adding several new merchants/day on our engine, so some of the concerns Becky raised will be covered over time. You guys may also want to check out our Smack Shopping feature on the site. Every day at 1pm EST we run a reverse auction on hot products like the iPod Nano (you can see a past deal on the nano here: http://www.jellyfish.com/sotd/archive/105). It is a fun and social way to get great deals using the Jellyfish.com model.
Dec 11, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Hi Chris,
Thanks for including myTriggers.com in your search! I’d love to hear your suggestions on how we can make changes to our layout to make it more appealing.
Glad you were able to easily find what you were looking for!
Dec 12, 2006 at 9:14 am
eh, try this: http://shopper.earthlink.net/shop/for/ipod+nano/
and:
http://shopper.earthlink.net/shop/for/Electronics/Personal+Audio/MP3+and+Digital+Media+Players/Apple+iPod+nano+Black+%284+GB%2C+MA107LL%2FA%29+MP3+Player
It’s funny because Apple toys are typically also the first thing i look for in online shopping engines, as i keep trying to ignore the fact that there’s virtually zero price competition when it comes to Apple products. It’s well-known that to be authorized to resell Apple products, Apple confines you to very strict margins, you’re basically forbidden to undersell them in any significant way, beyond some standard $10 to $20 allowance.
When buying a brand new Mac desktop or laptop, there’s a little more wiggle room, if you buy a system with minimum RAM which you upgrade yourself, or work with an independent reseller to sell you a system with more RAM at a fraction of the premium Apple charges for it.
I also like buying my own keyboard, mouse and flat-screen.
I hate, nay, abhor the Apple Mighty mouse. While very polished-looking, seemingly “cleverly-engineered”, i really don’t find it ergonomic or comfortable for any serious prolonged use. It hurts my wrist. If Apple billed Mighty Mouse as simply “the mouse that comes by default” it would be ok in my book, after all, the default DELL mouse isn’t great either (however cheap-looking and mildly crappy, it still feels more comfortable in my hands than the Mighty Mouse).
But Apple actually sells the MM on its own for $70 !@!
Dec 12, 2006 at 9:22 am
( sorry, shoulda made tiny urls
)
What i forgot to mention is that if you’re willing to go the “refurb way”, you’ll obviously find some pretty good deals. You can go as low as $150 on the iPod Nano you’re looking for: http://tinyurl.com/yy99co
Dec 12, 2006 at 10:39 am
This is great that the vendors are commenting on this post being appreciative and wanting more feedback. That will get my vote any time. Way to go Jellyfish and MyTriggers, you are the clear winners.
Dec 12, 2006 at 10:44 am
Blake P. – Agreed. Thanks to Mark and Sonia for both checking out the site and commenting on your reviews. It is such a great thing to have people representing these companies active in the blogosphere. I agree, that really endears me to their companies as well. Also, to Chris H. you are definitely right about the refurb route, if you are willing to go this way, you can save a lot. I definitely have bought things this way.
Thanks for all the comments. Cheers, Chris
Dec 17, 2006 at 9:34 pm
Voodoo Ventures - Idea Fuel Blog : Blog Archive : Web Entrepreneurs Shopping Lists at Crowdstorm says:
[...] For more on Crowdstorm, check our our review here. Thanks to Philip for inviting us to take part. Head on over to Crowdstorm and check out the great ideas and fun videos. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
Apr 27, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Why the name Jellyfish? Yuck. Will you get stung shopping there? Was chum.com and blowfish.com taken.
May 01, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Altough the idea of cashback looks good, I’ve never seem to find it pays off in the end. I usually like to look around. The one site you didn’t mention that agregates a lot of stores (reduces my time on google) is http://www.shopwiki.com
I did a search for a new a new plasma TV less than $2000, and I found nearly 2700 products/stores:
http://www.shopwiki.com/search.jsp?grid=true&q=plasma+tv+$1+-+$2000
Probably easier ot save the money up front than wait to see if you ever get a check in the mail.
May 18, 2007 at 1:42 pm
To me, deals sites like slickdeals and fatwallet are more useful than the sites highlighted here because usually I just want to find hot deals on products. Better still would be a hot deal aggregator like http://www.dealighted.com (which I’m currently addicted to and check 5 times a day, sorry honey!). If I don’t know what to buy, I use wize.com to show products with the most reviews buzz (like if I can’t decide on a particular digital camera) and finally when I try to figure out what store to buy from, pick a reputable store, I use http://www.resellerratings.com.
May 21, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Voodoo Ventures - Idea Fuel Blog : Blog Archive : Six Month Evaluation: The State of the Blog Post says:
[...] 90 Comments – the most comments was 12 on the Shopping 2.0 Smackdown post [...]
May 27, 2007 at 9:57 am
Thank you!
Jun 27, 2007 at 10:12 am
slickdeals and fatwallet are best if you can wait for a hot deal.
Also the following tool is very useful:
http://www.searchmydeal.com/
It organize deals from slickdeals and fatwallet through searching, sorting, filtering and scoring.
Aug 15, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Hey Nick, thank for sharing us the link to searchmydeal.com , I’ve been looking for a great and awesome deal for a long time.
Aug 16, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Anonymous says:
Hp Shopping…
Pacific Place (Shopping center) This piece of writing is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by escalating it. Pacific Place Overlooking the flooring stump of Pacific Place Mall in Seattle, WA. Mall evidence and statistics Locati…
Oct 18, 2007 at 5:55 pm
http://www.elivedeals.com is one of the niceset website i have seen for deals, coupons. It has upto date information on products. It’s well organized and easy to find deals. I like it. This is the best place to get great deals. Try once!
Oct 02, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Does anyone else worry that the Nano 4 feels too light and is so thin that it will easily break ?