Next Generation Shopping

This is a follow up to my previous post “Open Source E-Commerce Storefront Solutions Comparison for ASP.NET and PHP” in which I had compared two open source E-Commerce solutions (one for ASP.NET and one for PHP) as well as a full-source paid solution (Znode Storefront).

First off, a couple updates with regards to Znode…

1. Znode Storefronts has recently changed their pricing structure. They have dropped their Standard edition since my original blog post. Now they have Professional, Advanced, and Server editions. The reason I mention this is because the Professional price is labeled at $995, a $500 jump from the now extinct Standard version. This puts the software in the same category as other popular ASP.NET E-Commerce solutions, and so more must be expected.
2. Znode has launched a Developer portal and Knowledgebase at kb.znode.com. They seem to be off to a good start with that, and hopefully it will continue to grow. A strong developer community and responsive customer support is really what makes a product shine!

As I previously mentioned, Znode has hiked its price up. Two other solutions that are currently set in the same price range of a thousand bucks are ASPDotNet Storefront (ML Edition / DotNetNuke) and AbleCommerce 7.0. In this post we’ve got some great guest commentary from one of our readers, Jim Swanson. He recently had to make a decision in which he looked at Znode, AbleCommerce and ASPDotNetStorefront. In his research he found AbleCommerce to be the most promising for ventures. Read more »

E-consultancy released a (UK) report for March 2006 entitled Shopping Comparison Engines: Buyer’s Guide. Here are some important points I picked up on:

An increase in the shopping comparison market across the board, specifically:

“The shopping comparison market is growing at 30% year-on-year, according to figures from comScore Media Metrix.”

We are heading towards affiliates driving more of the comparison engines’ traffic.

Merchants may be better off selecting to advertise with niche comparison sites, rather than the biggest ones. The report states:

“There may be niche or vertical-specific comparison sites which can do a better job at qualifying the leads, resulting in higher conversion rates and an improved return on investment.”

Market Summary

• Growing shopping comparison market
• Increase in the ratio of traffic generated by comparison engine affiliates
• Appeal for niche or vertical-specific sites

All this information can be found in the:
E-Consultancy Shopping Comparison Engines Buyer’s Guide sample document.
For more details and information, you can buy the full research report for $179.

I believe that merchants may want to look at what steps companies are taking to create these niche shopping comparison portals. Shopping.com and Yahoo! have already taken the initial steps by providing their data to affiliates as a web service, thus, creating an environment for innovation. Hopefully, this innovation will lead to creation of niche sites and integration of pricing comparison information in unique and useful ways. Not simply hundreds of shopping comparison engine look-a-likes.

Technorati Tags: shopping comparison, e-consultancy, e-commerce, research