When you are looking for the cheapest price for a product what are the best price comparison sites in France?

France has been slow to develop an attachment to Internet shopping, but in the last few years there has been significant growth in this market.

A great deal of it has been spawned by an invasion of sites from abroad, with some of the main sites being offshoots from those developed in the UK and elsewhere.

You may well find that prices on the UK sites are cheaper, but as you also need to factor in the additional cost of postage to France, this may well offset any savings you may make by using the UK site.

Nevertheless, moving between the English language sites and the French sites does give a clearer appreciation of the product and of the price differences between the UK and France.

As you cannot actually buy from these sites, you need to make sure the site you are being directed you to has a sufficient level of security that you feel comfortable about using it. See our article Buying Over the Internet in France for more advice on this and other related points.

There are also more specific traps for the unwary with these price comparison sites.

In 2007 the trading standards office in France (DGCCRF) investigated the operation of 12 of these sites, 11 of which were found to lack a degree of transparency, notably about the tie up they had with retailers. Only the site 'Acheter-moins-cher' was given a clean bill of health.

As a result, under the eye of the government, the larger companies came together in June 2008 to sign a charter of operations, although Acheter-moin-cher considered that the new code of guidance remained inadequate, so use their own consumer charter.

One of the weaknesses of the general charter is that there remains little in it regulating the commercial relationship between the sites and the retailers on their sites.

As a result you need to be careful about interpreting ‘most popular’ offers, which may be no more than an agreement between the site and a retailer to promote a particular product.

Neither will you find that all retailers who sell a particular product are represented on the site. The list of comparisons is rarely exhaustive, so the lowest price listed is only going to be the lowest price from a retailer that is on the site.

Be careful to also check whether delivery is included in the price, and if is not, establish the cost of delivery. Some sites are quite clever at offering a product which on the surface appears cheaper, but excludes postage and packing. Others do not make clear that the price exclusive of VAT (TVA).

The same caution is needed on product reviews from customers. You need to ensure that there are plenty of them before relying too much on what is said by a few.

The following tour d’horizon of the main general sites in France excludes other more specialist sites e.g travel, music.

Le Guide.com

This site is the market leader in France. It has been in existence since 1998 and has nearly 6 million visitors a month.

One of the key market advantages it possesses is its partnership with the Internet giant Orange.

In total, it has around 14,000 retailers on its site offering over 16 million products.

The classification system is excellent, but the descriptive detail is short, the customer feedback feature is not widely used, and it defaults to classification by popularity, not price.

The site has a strong presence in Europe with associate companies in the UK, which it runs under the labels dooyoo.co.uk, pricesavvy.co.uk and Antag.co.uk.

You can try it out for yourself at: leguide.com

Ciao

This site is owned by Microsoft and it has a sister site in the UK that operates under the same badge.

Unlike Le Guide.com, the site focuses more on a review of products than a comparison of prices. So it prefers to brand itself as a 'shopping intelligence' site. However, not all the products listed actually have reviews!

There are around 10 million products referenced on the site, which has 5 million visitors each month.

Smaller retailers are less present on this site than on Le Guide.com, so this is going to further restrict your ability to get a full price comparison.

You can try it out for yourself at: ciao.fr

Shopzilla

An American site that was founded in 1996, which came to France in 1995. There is also a sister site in the UK and the European operation is actually based in London.

It has around 3 million products from 2500 retailers and 5 million visitors a month.

The site provides an evaluation of the retailers, based on customer feedback using a four ratings - Excellent, Bon, Satisfaisant, Médiocre. There is no product evaluation.

A site that is clear and easy to use and is particularly strong on high tech products. Again, short on descriptive detail.

You can try it out for yourself at: shopzilla.fr

Kelkoo

One of the first price comparison sites in France, purchased by Yahoo in 2004 and now owned by a UK private investment company. There is also a sister site in the UK.

They are the market leader in France, with an audience of around 4 million a month, 2000 retailers and 3 million products. Their strength is high tech products, particularly since they purchased 'Monsieur Prix' in 2003.

Lots of functionality on the site, as well as travel bookings that includes both Ryanair and Easyjet on it, which is unusual.

You can try it out for yourself at: kelkoo.fr

Twenga

This site possesses a product and prices comparison facility that probably exceeds all other sites in France.

With the second generation price comparison software it uses, the site claims they are capable of searching over 100,000 retailers and 225 million products.

Unlike other sites it only pays retailers by results rather than by click, so attracts a wider range of products, as retailers only pay when they get an order.

The site is also clear and easy to use.

Despite this penetration it only attracts an audience of around 3.5 million. It probably deserves better.

Listed prices exclude the cost of delivery, which are shown separately.

You can try it out for yourself at: twenga.fr

Shopping.com

This is a company of US origin, which also has a presence in the UK. Since 2005 it has been owned by eBay.

As a result a fair number of the products on the site come from eBay itself.

It claims around 3.5 million visitors a month. All prices shown include delivery and taxes.

You can try it out for yourself at: shopping.com

Touslesprix.com

A price comparison site created in 2001 offering 6 million products from around 1100 retailers. The site also sells flight tickets. There is some limited comparison of certain products.

The site is about to be relaunched with the promise of much more.

You can try it out for yourself at: touslesprix.com

Acheter-moins-cher.com

A site that does pride itself on its openess and independence, as we have indicated above.

The prices on the site are updated several times a day, in contrast to some of the others, whose price base may updated only once a day.

The site has a strong and wide selection of products, which is also clear and easy to use.

Comments from customers are also available and easy to read, although the site is sometimes short on descriptive detail.

You can try it out for yourself at: acheter-moins-cher.com