I first heard an advert for kelkoo.com on the radio quite a few months back. I had already used shopsmart.com and assumed that Kelkoo would be very similar.
The next time I needed to buy something
online, I decided to try kelkoo out. My suspicions that it would be similar, were confirmed although I did find it better.....
So are they the same as each other?
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Well, in essence they are one and the same. Both price
comparison sites that let you select a product area and then
search for a product. It will then search a number of
online shopsto see what price they offer on your chosen product. The results are then displayed, showing you the price and P&P (if applicable) and the potential saving between the best and worst priced site.
Do you actually save an amount to worry about?
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In my experience, certainly! I'll give you an example of the last time I used Kelkoo..... I was after a VHS copy of the Blair Witch Project and was about to go to WHSmith in my local town because they were advertising it for £11.99. The night before, I decided to check Kelkoo's price comparison.......From
memory it came back with around 7
shops offering the video and the potential saving was astounding! The most expensive came out at £16.98 plus P&P and the cheapest was £4.99 plus £1.50 P&P. At first I thought it was a mistake. However upon further investigation, it turned out to be an ex-rental video company. I bought it nevertheless and it was in perfect condition - you would never have known it was ex-rental.(Perhaps I'll do a review on that site next!) Some may say that this doesn't count, so to silence any skeptics, the next price up was just £8.99 including P&P. A worthwhile saving in my book!
So, can you compare prices on all products?
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No, there is a list of
categories where price comparisons are available and it is not exhaustive. That said, I feel it to be quite comprehensive and adequate for what most people wish to compare prices on. The list includes items such as: books, clothes,
computers,
household electrical and
appliances (cookers etc), flowers,
perfumes,
cosmetics,
music,
mobiles,
toys, travel,
cars and many others.
So what if I want to buy something and it can't be compared?
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No problem! There is also a
directory where you can search for a keyword and choose delivery source and destination (US, UK for example). It will then list a number of online shops that provide the item/service that you have searched for. I used this recently when searching for a shop to buy my DJ mixing decks from. I just typed in DJ and it came back with over 20 shops that specialised in
DJ equipment. You can then click a link that will open the shop's
homepage in a new
browser. You can vote for shops and I recommend this as it helps other users decide which ones to click on, as the rating for that shop is displayed next to it.
What if I'm strapped for cash and don't want to spend time searching?
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You could always click on the bargains section! There, you can (in a similar way to the directory) either select a category and browse the latest bargains or search for something in particular and let kelkoo do the work in finding you a bargain!
Does this super site do anything else for me?
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Funny you should mention that! You can always click on the features section and check out product
reviews on the listed categories. Featured products include reviews on cars, books,
games, music,
mobile phones and many others. Of course, for the best reviews, we all know that you should check Ciao first, as there is nothing like a review from someone with first hand experience!
I suppose its really hard to use, seeing as it provides all that info
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Not at all! I find the navigation of the site very simple indeed. The homepage is colourful and well laid out with buttons showing you the different areas. All you need to do is click on the relevant category, i.e. compare, directory, bargains etc and you will be taken to a page of broad categories with a few sub category examples for each. From there you can click on one and
view all subcategories, and off you go! The site itself and the search function are very quick indeed and the searches provide accurate results.
OK fair enough, but why do you prefer kelkoo?
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As I said, they are much of a muchness. However I find kelkoo faster, better laid out and much more visually appealing. Shopsmart suffers from using a white and blue colour scheme, which can make the site look bare. Aside from these cosmetic differences, shopsmart is really more orientated towards price comparison only. Kelkoo, as I said before offers a directory section, plus bargain searches. Shopsmart in its defence does do its price comparisons well, but I feel that Kelkoo has a slightly broader range and offers more hits from online shops (seem to have a wider directory that they search) Shopsmart does do shop reviews but as far as I'm aware, doesn't have the directory facility of Kelkoo.
Are there any down sides?
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I have rarely run into problems. The only point I would make is that sometimes you can search once and it gives you your set of results. You could then do exactly the same search again and it misses some results out and can add new ones. I'd guess the reason for this is that when you compare, it quickly contacts all e-shops in its directory. I would also assume that if a shop does not respond within a certain time, (I imagine they don't get long) it gets missed out. Therefore I deduce from this, that if you do a search at the moment that a particular site is busy, then you won't get results from that site - you could miss a bargain!
So is it worth using?
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If you like to make sure that you are
paying the very best price available, then definitely! I would recommend searching Kelkoo and Shopsmart just to be sure that you have had prices from everywhere possible. Of course, with Kelkoo you can always track down shops that specialise in certain types of product via the directory, to save you time trying to find them yourself.
Save a substantial amount of money 
Good review(-: ........................................................Darko