The rising popularity of comparison shopping engines can be seen most evidently in the growth of niche comparison shopping engines. These sites promise to provide higher return on investment through their specialized focuses. While I wrote on HealthPricer.com recently, LensPriceCompare.com takes the health products niche a step further with just listings on contact lenses. Here’s my interview with Patrick O’Donovan, owner of LensPriceCompare.com.
How did LensPriceCompare.com begin? Why was it started, what was your motivation?
[The] motivation was to provide a service to save money for contact lens wearers, add choice in lens price comparisons, and improve on existing sites. I wanted to create something unique, so I came up with the idea of creating a software package to auto-pick coupons and rebates, leaving users to think only about the quantity of lenses they need. Following the “Don’t Make Me Think” strategy by Steve Krug, price calculation, including shipping and handling, coupons and rebates, is all done for the visitor.
As a niche comparison engine, how is your relationship with the merchants that list on your site?
Some of our merchants are very open in their communications, which encourages excellent relationships, while others prove to be elusive. We have an unpublished proprietary rating process, in which results generally parallel price rankings. We may need to publish the rating results when more merchants are brought onboard. On a scale of one to five, with five being the best, I would say our merchant relationships go from a three to a five.
What does it take for a merchant to list on lenspricecompare.com? What is the fee structure like?
To list on the site, a merchant needs to be a member of an affiliate network like ShareASale, AvantLink, Commission Junction, Linkshare, or some other network, because that’s where pay-for-performance transactions are managed. Each merchant site must provide a data feed to be listed on our site. We prefer a data feed customized to our system. We check the Secretary of State Offices, the Better Business Bureau, and other sources to see if the merchant site would be a proper fit for our visitors. We inspect the site, the navigation, and the checkout process for reasonable operation and professional page design. Above all, we want the merchant to be able to convert highly targeted traffic, which is one of the best indicators of customer buying satisfaction. (We don’t want to overwhelm customers with too many choices either.)
Being a performance-marketing site we don’t receive a fixed fee. We receive a percentage of sales rather than fees. (See how LensPriceCompare.com makes money).
What are your plans for the future with LensPriceCompare.com?
HP’s cofounder - the late David Packard - once responded to the question of how to prevent competitors from finding out what you are doing said, “through your customers, suppliers and the grapevine in general, your competitors are always going to know what you are doing. Just don’t let them find out what you are thinking of doing!”
Where do you see comparison engines heading in the future – more niche engines, like yours, or more consolidation?
I don’t follow the big engines at all, but since coming across your own blog and ComparisonEngines.com, I will be keeping an eye on developments.
I find the niche engine concept much more exciting and fun to analyze and watch, mostly because I think it is an under-served sector with amazing potential. More niche sites will appear on the Web taking the place of existing ones and growing into under-served markets. The beauty of niche sites is that they serve a specific interest group, rather than the diverse audience served by larger engines. Consolidation of niche sites could be a possibility to spread search engine risk, yet unlikely considering the nature and structure of small and medium businesses.
Thanks to Patrick for taking to time to give us all an insight in the workings of an ultra-niche comparison shopping site! It appears that the growth of these types of shopping sites isn’t going to stop any time soon, highlighted in part by the competitive environment LensPriceCompare.com appears to be in.