Comparison shopping sites gaining in popularity

16% of active US Internet users shopped at comparison sites in August, says new research from Nielsen/NetRatings. Shopping.com (which was known as DealTime.com in August) led all such sites with 11.9 million unique visitors, up 70% from 7 million a year earlier, Nielsen/NetRatings says. Next was BizRate.com, with 5.9 million users, up 55% from 3.8 million a year earlier, followed by NexTag, at 4.6 million, up 74% from 2.6 million, and PriceGrabber.com, 3.9 million, up 81% from 2.1 million.

“Shopping comparison sites are no longer just about comparing prices,” says Rob Leathern, Nielsen/NetRatings’ director of commerce analytics. “Consumers want to examine features and functionality along with user and merchant reviews.”

Nielsen/NetRatings also reported that Yahoo Shopping is the most visited shopping portal, with 15.1 million unique users in August, more than twice the audience of No. 2 AOL Shopping, with 7.4 million. MSN Shopping was No. 3 with 4.9 million.,

“Consumers also focus a great deal of their online product research on finding ballpark prices for products they actually buy offline,” Leathern says. “Shopping comparison sites and portal shopping sites are thus having an increasing impact not just online but on purchases made in stores as well.”