Los Angeles — With the economic decline looming large all over the globe, consumers are either cropping down on their spending or actively looking to minimize expenses. And taking advantage this opportunity, AOL today will formally relaunch its completely revamped comparison shopping hub, AOL Shopping, to promote recession-friendly deals, coupons and sales to consumers across its site and a group of new advertisers including Barnes & Noble and Sears.
With retail sales steeply dropping during March, almost decreasing by 1.1% compared to February, it seems that retailers are in for the long haul when its comes to the virtual drought in consumer spending.
AOL Shopping’s homepage demonstrates a “monthly specials” slideshow, featured dominated by an above-the-fold of the site from retailers across a handful of categories, including cookware, appliances and electronics.
Each month the deals change; and a new suite of advertisers are expected to pepper the mix, including Barnes & Noble, Sears, Dell, Sephora and Bank of America. Coincidentally, Yahoo’s comparison shopping site, Yahoo! Shopping, has the same features, but wrapped up in a different interface.
In addition to a distinct category for deals and coupons, the site also features coupons powered by PriceGrabber.com on the right-hand column, and a box on the homepage indicating the most popular clearance and coupon pages — part of a commitment to “make it easy to find things like coupons, specials and timely offers that are relevant to consumers,” said director Sally Henry of AOL Shopping.
Users can select a “monthly specials” page with the best deals of the month, up-to-date coupons and sales, or they can look through the slideshow to see AOL’s recommendations for what products have the best deals. For April, AOL suggests televisions, appliances and cookware are your best bets.
The enhanced search for good deals in tough times is emphasized by a box on the home page displaying the site’s separate clearance and coupon pages as the most popular on the site. “We have actually seen improvement since we brought those things to the forefront,” said Henry.
With traffic to AOL Shopping in February down about 15% to 5.3 million unique visitors from 6.1 million a year ago, the site has some work to do build its audience back up to at least its prior level.
To achieve that, the site now features more than 100 categories and sub-categories from video games to pets, with pharmacy and grocery sections to follow in September. Category and product information pages now also feature larger images to better approximate an in-store experience.
AOL Shopping has approvingly stated that the site has signed on new advertisers for the relaunch of its site, including Dell, Discover, Sephora, Bank of America, Barnes & Noble and Sears.
For retailers, AOL Shopping has also adopted a more flexible approach to advertising, and marketers have also been empowered with more options for promoting their wares, allowing them to run campaigns and promotions from a one-day section or site sponsorship to a year-long ad deal. Performance-based ad programs are also an option. “It is really more of a [if you want it, we have got it] approach,” said Henry. “Whether it is a larger- or smaller-tiered retailer, we have got something to accommodate their needs.”
Other popular comparison shopping sites include Pricegrabber.com, BizRate, Shopzilla, and NexTag.