Just one in five UK shoppers plans to use a price comparison website (PCWs) on Black Friday according to new research.
The study, from Pricesearcher, an independent online search engine, indicates that this could indicate buyer fatigue, especially as retailers are extending the promotional period itself to try and generate revenue as Amazon has done.
The online retail giant has announced that its Black Friday trading will encompass 10 days of deals across its product categories as well as thousands of ‘lightening deals’.
However, original research of 2,000 UK consumers by Pricesearcher also revealed that when making purchases, 70% of consumers visit between three and five websites, with 60% also using price comparison websites to try find the best price. It is therefore likely that consumers are becoming more savvy and those who are planning to take advantage of Black Friday promotions are benchmarking prices in advance.
Samuel Dean, CEO and founder at Pricesearcher, commented: “We know UK shoppers have a keen eye for a bargain, so it’s surprising that just one fifth plan to use price comparison websites on Black Friday.
“Buyer fatigue illustrates the importance to retailers of ensuring their product feeds are optimised all year round as well as the benefits of product indexing in key categories ahead of peak trading when shoppers are conducting price research in order to maximise average order values (AOV).
“It also re-enforces the benefits of extending sales to capitalise on impulse buying when shoppers are comparing prices.”
The research also revealed that two fifths (39%) of online shoppers are not aware that most PCWs don’t give them the full picture, because of the costs involved for retailers to list all of their products. The PCW business model is to charge retailers for indexing products, so when consumers use one of these sites they are only seeing the products where there is marketing budget to promote them.