I was looking over the success stories at Internet Retailer today and I ran across one dealing with site search that caught my eye.  J.C. Whitney & Co. was able to increase their online sales almost 12% with a site redesign, better site search, and better customer service.  It got me thinking about a trend I've noticed among a lot of these online success stories.

Better site search = better sales

So I decided to try out a few popular online shopping destinations to see how their site search affected the entire shopping experience.  I'll be shopping for a DVD burner and I've decided not to restrict my choices to "shopping" websites.  Since a lot of people start with search engines when they want to buy something online, I'm throwing in a couple of those, too.  My list of sites is as follows:

• eBay
• Amazon.com
• PriceGrabber
• Shopping.com
• Froogle
• Google
• Yahoo
• MSN

I'm approaching this review from the perspective of your typical Internet user.  Not the technically savvy or power shopper.  If my mom wanted to buy a DVD online, where would I send her?  And I'm focusing on site search here.  There may be features or services offered that I don't talk about.  I want to know how easy it is to find products at these sites.

Watch for these icons:   = Best   = Good   = Acceptable   = Unacceptable

Read on to see individual reviews, opinions, and experiences using each of the above services.

eBay

The initial search experience on eBay is consists of a search box and drop-down list of categories on the main page.  There is a link to an advanced search, as well.  But I'm starting with the regular ol' site search.  I decided to choose "Consumer Electronics" as my category because "Computers & Networking" didn't really sound like what I was looking for.

eBay's search was smarter than me.  Even though I had selected "Consumer Electronics", the search results page showed me a breakdown of both "Consumer Electronics" and "Computers & Networking"… because as it turns out, "dvd burner" has more results in "Computers & Networking".  That was a really nice touch because it's often difficult to predict where companies (and other people) will file products.  eBay was smart enough to know that what I was looking for wasn't in the category I picked.

The subcategory of "DVD-RW/+RW Drives, Burners" was highlighted by larger-than-standard bold lettering.  When selected, I was presented with a list of 936 items that matched my search terms.  Luckily, eBay provides a ton of ways to refine the search.  A drop-down box at the top of the results list lets you sort by time (ending soon or newly listed), price (highest first or lowest first), distance, best match, and category.  I liked the way eBay actually spelled out how the sort would work.  No "ascending" or "descending" but, instead, "highest first" or "ending soon".  Another nice touch added for eBays target audience:  the non-technical.

The left side of the screen contained more ways to narrow and refine the search:  related categories, "search options", and buying guides.  The guides were a very nice touch.  I looked at one called "Drives and Burners" and it contained all the information that someone who had no idea what they were really shopping for would need to know to make an informed decision.  Another point for eBay.  The search options were also really nice.  You can further refine the time frame (like choosing to only show auctions ending within the next 2 hours, for example), show only items with free shipping or "buy it now" prices, and more.  You can even choose to display only completed auctions.  That's a nice feature for people curious about what they might be able to get on eBay for a DVD burner they wanted to sell.

As far as customization goes, eBay beats almost everyone else in this review.  You can continue to drill down and narrow your search results down from thousands to dozens… or even less.  With all of the ways to narrow and refine a search on eBay anyone, including the novice online shopper, should be able to find exactly what they're looking for.

Amazon.com

Like eBay, Amazon.com presents visitors with a single search box and a drop-down of categories and Amazon stores.  But unlike eBay, Amazon.com doesn't include a handy link to an advanced search option.  Amazon.com has more categories to choose from than eBay, though.  I decided to do the same thing I did at eBay and chose "Electronics" as my search category.

Amazon.com returned 426 results for my search on "dvd burner".  I don't know if I searched the best category because Amazon.com didn't have that eBay-like category list at the top of the results.  It simply said that I was in "Electronics".  Maybe there was more or better results under "Computers & PC Hardware"… but I'll never know.

Amazon.com lets you sort results in a number of ways:  relevance, "featured items", bestselling, alphabetical (a - z and z - a), customer review, and price (high - low and low - high).  Along the left side of the screen are options to expand or narrow the search.  It gave me the choice to expand my search by removing the keywords "dvd burner".  That doesn't make much sense.  If I remove the only keywords that I typed in, how would Amazon.com know what was I looking for?  Maybe it works better for lengthy search phrases.  But with "dvd burner" it was just a silly option to include.

The narrowing options were much better.  You could restrict your search to certain subcategories (like accessories, computers & add-ons, and home automation).  You can also narrow your search to specific brands.  If, for example, you've had a good experience with a certain brand in the past, you can honor your brand loyalty by showing only results from that company.  Handy numbers beside each subcategory and brand name tell you exactly how many results the narrowed results will return.  You can also choose to display only results from certain sellers (now that Amazon.com allows eBay-like selling by individuals) or within a certain price range.

While not quite as customizable or specific as eBay's search, Amazon.com does offer a pretty nice site search feature.  One thing I especially liked was the ability to sort results by customer review.  As we've discussed before, customer reviews can have a big influence on whether or not people spend money with your computer.  Amazon is capitalizing on the feature that it, in a way, helped to create.

PriceGrabber

The first thing you notice at PriceGrabber is all of the ways the company has created for customers to start their exploration.  There's the standard site search.  But there are also tabs along the top of the site, a directory-like list of categories and subcategories, popular categories, and popular items.  Since we're focusing on site search here I'll stick to that.  But just keep in mind that PriceGrabber has given customers several ways to jump in and start shopping.  eBay and Amazon both have featured or special items covering their front pages.  PriceGrabber puts the search and discovery experience right up front.  Nice.

As with the previous sites, a simple search box and category drop-down run across the top of the site.  So I entered "dvd burner" and, like at the other sites, chose "Electronics" and not "Computers".  PriceGrabber was smart, like eBay.  Although it didn't make it as painfully obvious as eBay did, PriceGrabber realized that what I was looking for was actually in the "Computers" category.  It simply switched categories for me and returned a list of 845 items in the "Computers" category.  Smart.

The results page suggests that I also try searching in the "Movies" category.  I'm sure it picked up the word "dvd" and thought I was looking for movies.  But if it's smart enough to know to change my category, it should be smart enough to realize that I wasn't looking for movies.  Otherwise, the results gave me a list of other categories with search results for "dvd burner" at the top of the page.  Like Amazon, numbers beside each category indicated how many results are included.

As far as I could tell, the initial results page doesn't provide any way to sort the results.  Glaring omission, PriceGrabber.  With almost 900 results to choose from, how am I supposed to find exactly what I want without any sorting options?  $80 drives appear right next to $800 Blu-Ray  writers.  And the results span 43 pages.  Am I really expected to just scroll through all those pages looking for results within my price range… or from my company… or with good customer reviews?  This huge, huge mistake ruined my PriceGrabber experience.

A click on the "Compare Prices" button for any item in the results list takes you to another list of companies and stores selling that item.  Item pictures, descriptions, price rangers, and overall customer review appear along the top.  Under that, tabs let you see more detailed product information, individual customer reviews, and "discussions" on the product.

On the main "Compare Prices" tab, a list of vendors appears along with their price, availability, and seller rating.  I can tell that the column headers can be clicked to be sorted.  But would my mother be able to tell?  I doubt it.  There's no visual or verbal clues to tell you that you can sort on this tab, which I find odd due to the fact that the "Customer Reviews" tab clearly states that the reviews can be sorted.  Why not add clear wording like this to the most important tab on the entire site?  Another glaring omission.

I was much less impressed with PriceGrabber than I was with eBay and Amazon.  Digging through dozens of pages and hundreds of results with no way to sort is just an unforgivable omission for a shopping site.  If I was one of the people behind PriceGrabber, sortable results would by my TOP priority.  Creating more work for your customers is a great way to run them off.

Shopping.com

Shopping.com has a list of categories running down the left side of the screen.  But oddly, no drop-down exists beside the search box.  I'd become so accustomed to that at the other sites that it looked a little funny not having it.  As I've shown, though, those drop-down boxes aren't always the best help anyway.  But Shopping.com recovered that momentary loss of appeal when I started typing "dvd burner" into the search box.  A drop-down window appeared as soon as I started to type that offered suggestions for what I might be looking for.  I only typed "dvd" and, not surprisingly, "dvd burner" was an option in the list.  So I just clicked that.  Very nice touch, Shopping.com.

My jaw almost hit the ground when I saw the results page:  5,273 results.  A breadcrumb trail at the top of the page told me exactly where I was and I was even given other options to choose from if the results didn't look like what I was hunting for.  Nice.  A big, noticeable blue box at the top of the results page that said "Top 5 Most Popular CD & DVD Burners".  A drop-down inside the box lets you choose a specific brand or simply "all".  I chose "all" and the blue box slid down to show a ranked list of the most popular DVD burners, their "popularity score", and, with a simple mouse-over of each item, a big picture, price range, and a button to compare those prices.  By far, this was my favorite feature on any of the sites I went to.  By far.

Like a good shopping site, Shopping.com lets you sort results by popularity, price (low - high & high - low), and product rating.  A set of tools running down the left side let you refine even more.  Another first in this review was the ability to set my own price range.  Shopping.com offers you a list of set price ranges to choose from but it also lets you put your own custom price range in.  Awesome.  The other refinement options were customized to the product I was looking for.  I could choose a specific manufacturer, enclosure (internal, external, plug-in), supported media, burner type (DVD-RW Dual Layer, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, etc), write speed, rewrite speed, read speed, and interface… just to name a few.  You can even click "Select more than one" and go on a wild customization spree, clicking all the options you want to create a perfectly tuned search for your product.  And if you don't want to choose any of the pre-made refinement tools, you can re-search within your initial search results.

Clicking on a product brings you to a page similar to the one at PriceGrabber.  It gives you a list of stores selling that item, the store's customer rating, a "notes" section that tells you about things like free shipping and availability, the price, and a big "Buy It" button.  Unlike PriceGrabber's page, you can actually sort these results, too.  And like eBay, buying guides from a number of reputable sources (like C|Net, eBay, and Consumer Search) are linked to on the product information page.

Shopping.com offered the best experience, far and away.  You can literally create the product search of your dreams with this site.  Great features, like the buying guides, Top 5 box, and search suggestions really made Shopping.com stand out.  Not surprisingly, Shopping.com is an eBay company.  The two sites with most customizable experience live under the same roof.  It just goes to prove what I've said in the past:  eBay is a smart, smart company that knows what it's doing.

Froogle

Froogle's no-frills start page is deceiving.  When you click that search button, a plethora of information appears… and a plethora of results.  20,543 to be exact.  Luckily there are tons of ways to sort the results.  Like Shopping.com, you can select a pre-made price range or create your own custom range.  Nice.  You can also narrow your results by brand, store, seller rating, or product-specific options (like storage capacity).

A prominent box right above the search results asks for your zip code to help find products near you, physically.  Unfortunately, when I entered my zip code it took all of the search results away.  I know there are places here that sell dvd burners (Circuit City, Best Buy, Wal-Mart… to name a few).  So this feature, while helpful to some, is probably a little misleading to other people.

Clicking one of the product links in Froogle takes you directly to the site selling the item.  And to be honest, I didn't care for this approach.  I want more information on a product than the skimpy details provided by Froogle.  But I also don't want to have to wander to dozens of other websites to get that information.

Google

A simple Google search for "dvd burner" produced 1,750,000 results… and, of course, no way to sort.  As I scanned the list of results on the first page, the only name I recognized was Download.com and it was a link to DVD software.  In fact, all but one of the results was for DVD software.  In this case, the sponsored results turned out to be much more valuable than the natural ones.  Circuit City… Best Buy… Target… and PriceGrabber.  All names I recognize and trust.  I'd have to go with one of those.  But just to see what else I could find, I went on to page 2 of the results.

More of the same.  I wasn't impressed.  No link to Froogle… nothing.  Huge missed opportunity, Google.  HUGE.  And if you take the time to click the "more" link on Google.com, it says "Froogle".  But if you're, say… my mom… you don't know what "Froogle" means.  It should say SHOPPING or something similar.  Yes, Google.. Froogle is a clever name for your shopping search.  But it means absolutely nothing to a large portion of the population.

Yahoo

I was much more impressed with Yahoo's handling of my "dvd burner" search.  I didn't have to select "shopping" or go to a different page.  I used the regular ol' Yahoo search box at Yahoo.com.  Above the search results was a big, bold link for "DVD Burners" with the Yahoo symbol next to it.  There was also a link to a buying guide, and links that said "internal" and "external".  Like the main "DVD Burners" link, clicking either "internal" or "external" took me to… you guessed it… Yahoo Shopping.

Yahoo Shopping had as many, if not more, options, customizations, and refinement abilities than the full-time shopping sites I'd already visited.  It gives you the option of sorting your results (which numbered 1,491) by "top results", price (ascending, descending… ugh), and product rating.  Along the left side of the screen was also the expected narrowing and refinement options:  price range (which was only a custom price range… no pre-made ranges), brand, type of drive, enclosure, interface (like USB, FireWire… which the other sites didn't offer), seller, and special deals.  Special deals was a really nice addition.  It showed you which stores were offering specials, sales, or discounts.  And like Shopping.com, Yahoo Shopping lets you further search within your initial results.

But my favorite feature of Yahoo! Shopping was the comparison feature.  By checking a box next to the results for any product you were interested in, Yahoo could create a side-by-side comparison chart for you.  Maybe the other sites offered this.  But if they did, it wasn't as glaringly obvious as it was at Yahoo! Shopping.

Of the search engines, Yahoo performed by far the best.  I didn't even have to bother looking at the natural results to find what I was looking for.  And once I got to Yahoo! Shopping, it was just as good or better than most of the other shopping sites I visited.  Google maybe be the place people go to find information online, but Yahoo is a much better destination for finding products.

MSN

MSN is a tricky search to review.  If you simply go to MSN.com and search, without clicking anything else, you get Google-like results in Windows Live.  But unlike Google, MSN has a link above the search box that says "Shopping".  So I gave MSN the benefit of the doubt and decided that enough people would notice that link to make clicking it worth my time.

MSN Shopping is a lot like Yahoo! Shopping in that it offers a lot of ways to sort, narrow or refine searches, and even has the nifty comparison feature that Yahoo! Shopping has.  Unfortunately, the extent of information that it compares between products is almost laughable compared to Yahoo's.  The other standard refinements are there:  category, brand, price (including a custom price range option), and store.  But some of the other refinements at Yahoo! Shopping are missing here.

Overall, MSN fared better than Google and makes it a little more obvious that a shopping search is available.  But Yahoo! Shopping still offered a better service in the end.

Conclusions

Of the sites I compared, Shopping.com, eBay, and Yahoo worked the best for me.  And since I was approaching the subject from the perspective of your typical, non-technical Internet user, I think those three options would work best for most people.  Amazon.com was a decent choice as was MSN.  PriceGrabber was a big disappointment, especially since it is a shopping-specific service.  Yahoo, a general purpose search engine, delivered much more customizable and usable results.  And while Froogle is a decent product, Google makes it a little difficult to find and use the service… unless you specifically know that it exists.

There are other shopping sites and shopping searches, too.  This list isn't all inclusive.  But I think these are the sites with the most exposure and brand awareness that people might automatically think to use.  In the end, each person will have their own preference.  But if you're new to online shopping, or don't know where to start, I'd suggest the three sites I mentioned before.

I'd love feedback on this review.  If I missed something at one of these sites, please call me out on it and let me know.  And if you prefer a site that I didn't talk about, let me know I'll give it a look for a future review.