The growing importance of Shopping Search as an online
marketing tool

Shopping Search is already an important part of the consumer buying process, some 50 % of people visited shopping engines before purchasing in 2006. This is set to grow as shopping sites become more sophisticated and consumers understand there true value. For marketers it offers the same key benefits as general search, which has become such a key part of online marketing - targeted buyers that are "actively looking" to acquire something. Shopping Search is a great customer acquisition tool, and can be used to deliver sales at the target cost per sale levels if managed well.

In the US alone merchants spend c$1.5bilion on shopping search and generate tens of billions of dollars worth of sales.