Shopping: Shopping stats - UK shoppers warm to comparison sites

The market is growing by 30 per cent each year, according to data from
comScore Media Matrix. It estimates that there were 14.9m unique
visitors to shopping comparison sites in February 2006, while the total
UK online audience was 30m. In the same month of 2005, there were 11.5m
unique visitors to these sites.

This means that the proportion of UK online audiences who accessed
shopping comparison sites in February was 49 per cent, compared to the
41 per cent recorded in the same month of 2005.

The shopping comparison engines quizzed by E-consultancy for its 2006
buyers' guide revealed growth projections for this year of between 40
and 500 per cent.

The survey also showed the proportion of online marketing budget spent
on comparison engines is typically three to five per cent, although this
figure could rise to 30 per cent for certain sectors like electrical
goods or insurance. A report published by Forrester in January found
that a third of the UK's online financial researchers use price
comparison sites.

For some financial services products, aggregators accounted for up to 50
per cent of online business, says E-consultancy. On the flip side, some
sectors spent nothing at all. In the travel sector, experiences vary.
While Cheapflights used the engines extensively - its partners helped it
generate £1bn in sales in 2005 - others make little use of
shopping comparison sites.

E-consultancy was reluctant to estimate the total value of UK online
sales generated by these engines overall.

The report describes a maturing comparison market, with both pure-play
and traditional retailers embracing the channel. This has been reflected
by recent consolidation, such as the acquisition of Kelkoo by Yahoo! and
Shopping.com by eBay. Others include EW Scripps buying Shopzilla.com and
Experian buying PriceGrabber.