Heureka, Glami, Favi – do you know how to get the most out of them?

Everyone knows them, but not everyone knows exactly how they work and how to get the most out of them. We are talking about "shopping and selling helpers" such as Heureka, Glami and Favi. What are their known and lesser-known features, their strengths and weaknesses, and what is the competition like in neighbouring countries? Read on...

Heureka – the strongest Slovak price comparison site

In 2018 Heureka was the fifth most visited portal in Slovakia, with almost two million visits (source: https://www.iabslovakia.sk/), and it is the clear leader among Slovak price comparison sites. It certainly owes that to strong backing as well — it is part of Rockaway Capital (Mall Group). The other Slovak portals make up a negligible part of the market.

What does Heureka offer the customer?

Heureka offers several features that are crucial in the buying process:

• it compares product prices, with the first 4 places bid on. That means your shop can reach the top four even if it is not the cheapest. It is enough to set a higher cost per click. The remaining offers are then ranked organically by product price
  
• it allows product search by category and by parameters within a category
  for example: laptop, 14" screen, i5 processor, brands: Apple, Asus, HP
  
• it provides e-shop ratings — verification through reviews from real customers. A customer who buys on the site receives a questionnaire from Heureka 10 days after purchase about their satisfaction, in which they rate the products as well as the shop

What does Heureka offer e-shops?

• a clear range report offering the chance to obtain data from product cards about price relative to other competitors on the same card, to find out how top products are (their ranking by sales and popularity) and also the option of working dynamically with pricing. The condition is that the shop must earn the verified by customers status!
• buying data from Heureka for individual categories on product growth, popularity and so on.
• the most effective traffic source in terms of conversion rate

What not to forget if you decide on Heureka

• check that your products are placed in the right category and on the product card, if one exists;
• use the Mergado tool for editing feeds;
• work with the data dynamically and optimise performance properly;
• watch the answers to the verified by customers questionnaires and reply to negative reviews;
• send as many parameters into the feed as possible for better product filtering within categories — colour, length, width, weight and so on…

Price comparison sites in neighbouring countries

a) Czechia

In Czechia, Heureka faces strong competition from zbozi.cz and a number of smaller comparison sites. According to the latest figures Heureka has a 52% market share and Zbozi 26%.

b) Hungary

In Hungary, Heureka goes by the name arukereso.hu. Besides it there is olcsobbat.hu and argep.hu, which is oriented mainly towards electronics. A drawback is the weak command of English when dealing with these sites' support.

c) Romania

In Romania, Heureka goes by the name compari.ro. Besides it there is price.ro, okazii.ro and shopmania.ro.

d) Poland

In Poland, Heureka goes by the name ceneo.pl. Besides it there is skapiec.pl. Expect harder communication when settling matters, though, and a market markedly sensitive to domestic brands and to price.

Product search engines

Product search engines help a customer who has no specific idea of the product, only a general one. Most work as an auction system where you pay per click, or take a commission when an order goes through.

Product search engines in fashion

The GLAMI search engine enjoys great popularity in Slovakia. It is a portal where you pay per click and the cost per click is relatively low next to other media. The lowest cost per click is calculated as a percentage of product prices. Others that are popular, though smaller in volume, are Spartoo and Shopalike, the latter combining several categories besides fashion.

GLAMI already operates in neighbouring countries too — Czechia, Hungary, Romania and Croatia. Its large drawback is that a daily budget cannot be set in the admin. That is also why we recommend evaluating the results regularly and optimising performance through the Mergado tool as well.

Product search engines for the home

A large battle for traffic volume in Slovakia is being fought by the FAVI and Biano portals. Both can generate an excellent order conversion rate, but here too it is important to optimise performance regularly, since neither FAVI nor Biano.sk offers any way of setting a daily budget in the portal's admin either.

Besides these two search engines, Slovakia also has the popular SAShE.sk portal, which by its nature is meant for handmade, non-brand shops and products.

Video interview

I was recently invited onto Ecommerce Bridge, where they interviewed me on the subject.