Price comparison sites
Online comparison shopping sites do simultaneous, real-time searches and comparisons between many online stores for a particular product.
The results are returned to the user, for easy comparison as to which sites is offering the cheapest price.
The price comparision sites link through to the various online stores so that you can complete your purchase.
Many price comparisons sites also offer useful features like user reviews, product details for comparison and price alerts.
Beware where you do your online comparisons
Resist impulse buying and spend a little time doing some research. It can save you huge amounts, and doing product and price comparisons is not as tedious as it seems.
- Use independent, third party online shopping sites for unbiased information and product and price comparison.
- Many price comparison sites only feature sponsored products. The products may not be the cheapest, the best or even be recommended by them.
- Different price comparison sites compare different online stores. This means you may find better deals using a selection of online price comparison sites.
- You don't know how reputable the returned vendor shopping sites are. More on recognizing trustworthy shopping sites
The cheapest deal is not always the best
When using using price comparison sites carefully review the conditions of sale and delivery before making a purchase.
Here's a list of the most common things to check when selecting a store via an online price comparison site.
- Postage rates, including delivery time and insurance costs.
- Return and warranty policies.
- Forms of payment accepted - if a site doesn't accept credit card payment be suspicious. See online security for more tips.
- If the item is being shipped from abroad there are additional things to take into consideration. See Buying Internationally
